


TA Oliver

by chalametsberm



Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, University
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-04-07 19:33:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14088114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chalametsberm/pseuds/chalametsberm
Summary: Elio has a TA in his Intro to Philosophy class that he cannot fucking stand. His name is Oliver. In Elio's book, TA might as well stand for Total Asshole.





	1. 1

“Shit. Fuck. Damnit”

“Mr. Perlman?” It was the TA for the class that he was somehow doing the worst in, philosophy. They had just gotten their midterm papers back. The TA’s name was Oliver. Elio hated him with a burning passion. Elio would have cursed in Italian or French, but wonder boy knew Italian, and enough French to know to reprimand him. This was what Elio sometimes called Oliver to his family. They just told Elio this reflected badly on him, not Wonder Boy. It didn’t help that Wonder Boy was much younger than the normal TA that they had for philosophy. There weren’t very many young hotshot philosophers these days. 

Elio turned his head towards the TA and rolled his eyes. “Yes, Oliver?” Elio asked in a tone that made Oliver bristle with anger. It was sugary sweet, the tone he used to get girls to blush and wrap their hair around their fingers. This was full-on sugar overload, and he hoped that Oliver would take it for what it was: pure anger. He told his students not to call him Oliver, but he made a point of never learning his last name.

“I know you think you can do whatever you want because this is college, but please, try to control yourself.” Elio rolled his eyes. There was no way that Wonder Boy controlled himself. He was most likely sticking his TA dick in every freshman that batted her eyes at him the right way. It made Oliver sick. The only thing that made him feel better about not getting laid as much as he thought he would first semester of college was that he was sure he wasn’t Oliver’s sloppy seconds. 

“Try to control myself.” Elio slurred, air quotes blazing. Oliver was a real ass kisser. The biggest problem? The ass Oliver was kissing belonged to his father. Elio was used to professionals kissing his father’s ass. It made sense, he was high in his field, and they respected his opinion. Usually, though, it was some old man from the middle of Italy, not some guy that was close to his age and a grad student. And usually, that person didn’t have control over whether or not he passed his Philosophy 101 class. 

Oliver rolled his eyes and walked off to the front of the class. Elio didn’t understand how he was doing so poorly in his dad’s class. He had tried to talk to him about it, but he had just told him he would have to talk to the TA. Professor Perlman knew how much Elio hated Oliver and loved how much it killed him that he would have to meet him with Oliver. It was a big part of his job to have office hours. Luckily, Elio never had to go. It would have been borderline impossible to get an appointment, though, because there was seemingly always a line out the door of people that just Had to talk about philosophy. If he wasn’t such an asshole, maybe he could be good looking. No, he wasn’t. Elio shook himself out of it. Elio made a fake gagging noise, making only himself laugh. The students in front of him turned and rolled their eyes. Elio flipped them off when they turned back, and of course, Oliver saw and shook his head. Elio threw up the Scout’s Honor hand symbol after doing the symbol of the cross to beg for Oliver’s mercy. By the time he was done with this charade, Oliver was busy talking to someone else. 

On the top of the paper he had turned in, it said, in handwriting, he didn’t recognize: “come to office hours.” Great. Not only was it probably Oliver that had royally fucked his GPA, he wanted to rub it in his face in a dingy cubicle. Oliver acted like the cubicle was a real office. Not only was it not, in any way a real office, but he didn’t even have it all the time. It was rotating for the different TAs. He had photos of who Elio assumed was his girlfriend, and photos of them in Paris, a vacation they had taken so that Oliver could work on his French. That’s what Elio’s dad had told him, anyway. If Elio’s dad and mom weren’t so happy in their marriage, Elio thought that Professor Perlman had a thing for Oliver.

Marzia heard the commotion. It made sense. She heard everything. She didn’t react when Elio fake gagged, she knew him too well to be surprised by any of his dramatics anymore. She had also made the decision to leave the nest and go to school in the states. It was harder for Marzia because she spoke less English, but Elio was helping her out. The only thing they didn’t plan for was that the nest was going to follow them to Colombia. His father was invited to work as a guest professor, and of course, his mother came along. He and his parents and Marzia were all staying in the university housing for guest teachers.

Elio was convinced Marzia was omnipresent. She knew stuff about Elio before Elio even did. Like the paperboy, he told her about three years ago. She knew.

“Was he cute?”  
“Who?”  
“The boy. He must have been. You’re blushing. Why do you never blush around me?”  
“I am not blushing.”  
“Bullshit. It’s cute though.”  
“I hate you.”

That was an easier time. Nothing had happened with the paperboy, and Elio was grateful. He wasn’t ready to make any life-changing realizations. Not yet anyway.

“Mr. _______ got ya down?”

Elio didn’t listen when Marzia said his last name. It was his dying wish to never learn it. Elio knew he was precocious, but that was what was expected as a professor’s son, and he hammed it up because he could get away with it. Well, now he wasn’t so sure, but he certainly could before he came to college. 

“Look, M.” Elio shoved his paper in her face. The “see me” practically jumping off the page. Elio could feel the writing all the way through the paper. It was triple underlined with a vengeance. Marzia laughed. “What, may I ask, is so goddamn funny?”

“He likes you.”

Elio was the one to laugh now. He could barely hold back the tear that fell from his eye he was laughing so hard. “Marzia, we can speak French, if that’s easier for you. Because, I love you, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. 

“I’m serious, El. He likes you. And I think you like him, too.”

“How often do I complain about him?”

“You certainly talk about him a lot.” 

“I complain about him a lot. See? I hate him. You’re being obtuse. What did you get on the paper?”

Marzia held up a paper with an ‘A’ and a “great job” written on it.

Elio held up a middle finger in response. He hated that his first thought was that Oliver liked Marzia. Then his second thought, probably even more evil than the first was that Oliver was being easier on her because English wasn’t her first language. That wasn’t fair. She was smarter than him by a mile, and he knew that. It was just hard to accept sometimes.

“Elio?” His dad. He was taking roll. Elio weakly raised his right hand, still flipping off Marzia with the left.

“Speak up, Elio, or else we’ll have to mark you absent.” Elio couldn’t roll his eyes hard enough. It was like Oliver was trying to be the most difficult person in the world. Marzia used to tell him it looked like he was being exercised of demons when he rolled his eyes. All this got her was a more exaggerated exorcism. 

Marzia made a kissy face at him. Elio spoke louder, but barely. He loved pushing Oliver’s buttons so much that he couldn’t help it. “I’m here, Oliver. Still, haven’t missed a class. But I guess that isn’t what matters, is it?”

“Mr. ______, Elio, you know that.” Elio shook his head. Despite the huge lecture-style classroom, he could feel the power of Oliver’s direct eye contact. Marzia and Elio sat near the back. This was mostly because everyone had heard ‘such good things’ about the visiting professor from Italy and wanted to get on his good side right away. There was a rumor that if you did, you could go to his villa in the summer and study in northern Italy. Of course, this wasn’t true, but Elio wasn’t going to correct anyone. He instructed Marzia not to correct anyone, either. He enjoyed watching the students grapple to win his father’s attention.

In reality, it was always a graduate student. A graduate student that was Special. Like a Big Deal. That was not anyone in this classroom of freshman. This was an entry-level class. Which made it even more infuriating that he was doing so badly in it. The person that was supposed to be teaching the class went on paternity leave, which Elio didn’t even realize was a thing.

So now, it was his father. It was his father and he was doing poorly in his class. It was an intro class on the subject he was supposed to be good at. But it was his father. His father and he was failing.

His father had started the lecture, but Elio’s mind was elsewhere. Elsewhere specifically was where he was going to go out that night. He was only 18, but this being a college town, some places were chill with fake ids.

He could also go to a house party. It was mostly about whatever Marzia wanted to do. Ah, Marzia. What a weird past they had. They lost their virginity to each other two summers ago, but that was old news. Marzia has found someone way better. Elio was still getting used to that. It was hard when they weren’t right there. Marzia was always right there. They had been friends since they were kids. Elio’s parents used to joke about them getting married one day. It just made sense. Elio + Marzia just made sense. But it wasn’t meant to be. Elio didn’t have the heart to tell his dad. It was a big reason that he invited Marzia to go with them, so for that he was thankful.

He guessed he should pay attention. Once he snapped out of his daydream, Oliver was talking, which meant the class was nearly over. All Elio heard was “blah, blah, blah, I’m a giant fucking douche, blah, blah, I’m the biggest ass kisser in the world, blah, I’ll make you all think I’m going to fuck you so you pay attention in class, blah, etc.”

Marzia hit him. He swore in French. It was nice that they had a language that most people in New York didn’t speak. They could talk shit about almost anyone.

“He’s talking to you, idiot.”

“I’ll see you in my office hours today, Mr. Perlman?”

Elio’s dad interrupted. “Well, you won’t be seeing me, Oliver! Maybe the younger Mr. Perlman! Ah to be young. Anyways, class dismissed. Make sure to study for the midterm coming up! Take a bite out of life this weekend!”

Elio rolled his eyes. He knew his dad was smart, but seeing all these freshman and sophomores listen to his words like they were gospel was a little much for his taste.

“Let’s get out of here.” Elio was on the move as he was talking. He always requested a quick exit, this wasn’t out of the ordinary at all. 

“I’ll follow you.”

Elio wanted to avoid interacting with Oliver as much as possible, so he ran out the back door. Unfortunately, it had appeared that Oliver went out the door on the bottom of the lecture hall that dumped him out in the same place. Damn this architecture.

“I’m serious about office hours, Mr. Perlman. Your essay was unacceptable. He paused to nod at Marzia. “Marzia.” Marzia blushed and nodded back. Traitor.

“I’ll be there, Jesus. Try not to sound so desperate. Everyone in this class is already thirsty for your-“

“Elio,” Marzia whispered, she sounded stressed. She was signaling cut it out as subtly as possible. 

“Elio, I would be careful with how you finish that sentence. If you’re about to say knowledge, you would be correct. Oliver is a great asset to you all.”

Oliver gave Professor Perlman a pointed look. “Sorry, Oliver. Mr. ________ is a valuable resource that you should use to your advantage. Both of you.” With that, Professor Perlman was gone. He liked his students but didn’t like to dilly-dally. He didn’t want to waste time he could be working. Also, Marzia and Elio would be with him at dinner, as they all lived together.

“Okay, thanks bye!” Elio grabbed Marzia’s hand and walked off. He looked at his watch. He had four hours to kill until the office hours. God, time went so slowly.


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elio goes to office hours. And then out to destress from said office hours.

“He’s a fucking asshole, M!” Elio didn’t care if his mother heard him yelling. This was the behavior that she had gotten used to ever since the semester started. Elio was slamming doors as he was walking around, so that was probably drowning out anything that he was saying. 

“I think he’s nice.” Marzia looked smug. Well, Elio was pretty sure she looked smug, it could just be the way her face looked. He found that often the prettiest people looked the most smug all the time. 

“You just think he’s nice because he’s nice to look at.”

“I never said that.” 

“Didn’t have to.” Elio punctuated that with a bite into a peach. He should have known better, it was sour as hell. He spat it out. Marzia gave a little effort to look disgusted but quickly changed the subject. 

“Are you excited about office hours?” Marzia was grinning like a cat with a secret. Not Elio’s best metaphor, but he was angry, and didn’t have time to think straight. 

“No, you absolute buffoon. I am not excited about office hours.”

“You know, if you weren’t so close to this situation you would agree with me that it is playing out like a mash-up of like three terrible pornos.” 

“Guess what? I am not going to dignify that with a response.” Elio huffed off to change into something more comfortable. 

“Changing for your big date?” 

Elio didn’t have anything to say, so he just flipped Marzia off. She was great and smart but had no idea what she was talking about. Then, it hit Elio: what if Oliver thinks that he likes him? What if he thinks that Elio is doing badly in the class to get into his pants? What if that is why he was being called into office hours? To be let down gently before anything could happen. Why was Elio disappointed that he was going to be preemptively broken up with? He didn’t even care at all! 

Because if Elio cared about this, that meant that he cared what Oliver thought of him, and that was just not acceptable. He put on his baggiest, rattiest t-shirt in order to convince himself that he didn’t care. Then, he changed into a bigger button up that didn’t look as trashy. It occurred to him that it looked quite a bit like one that Oliver had worn during a class. 

“We’re going out after this meeting because I will need a drink, I can already tell. So while I’m suffering, you better come up with a game plan for tonight.”

“Of course, we’re going out, E, don’t be dull. I’ll sort it out.” 

Elio grabbed his backpack on the way out. He said goodbye to his dad on the porch smoking and tried to make it quick, but that didn’t work. It never did, so he didn’t know why he was so surprised. 

“Be nice to him, Elio.”

“Why should I be nice to him when all he does is pick on me?”

“Because, Ellie-Bellie, you can only control what you do. Besides, if he really wanted to pick on you, he wouldn’t expect anything at all from you. He would grade your papers with a sloppy check-mark and call it a day. He adds a lot of comments to your work, no?” 

“Yeah, but he-”

“Just go talk to him.” 

Elio harrumphed and kept walking. Luckily, he was literally living on campus so he wasn’t worried about being late. He wasn’t worried until he realized there was a line out the door. Great. Oliver’s office hours had started five minutes ago and he was going to have to stay until the end. Oliver poked his head out the door. “Elio, come here.” 

“I’ll wait, it’s ok, you have to attend to your fans- I mean- students.” Oliver rolled his eyes to show he didn’t appreciate Elio calling the other students his fans, but he smiled when he did it. Clearly, he agreed. Elio counted that as a win. Then, immediately after, got mad at himself for wanting to connect with Oliver. 

Oliver turned to the students in line. “Hey guys, sorry, I have to meet with Elio today, I’ll be back for next office hours, but I have a feeling this is going to take a long time. If anyone needs something urgently, you can email me.”

A few people grumbled as they were leaving, but they all left. It seemed like they really all just wanted some face time with Oliver more than anything. 

“Come in, Elio.” 

“You have an office now?” Elio didn’t know why that was the first thing he thought to say, but it made Oliver higher up than he was, now. Before, he was a huge guy in a cubicle, and now he was still huge, but also had an office. 

“My office hours were taking up too much space, and no one was using this office. It just made sense.” 

Elio scoffed. Even Oliver’s attempt at humility fell flat. “You must think you’re some kind of hotshot, don’t you?”

“Excuse me?” Oliver moved to sit on the edge of his desk, like every teacher in every movie. 

“You get an office and all of a sudden you’re every college professor in every movie. Are you going to give me some kind of inspirational speech about how I am not giving it my all? You can save it. I’m working my ass off, and you are giving me a hard time for no reason.”

“Are you?” Oliver had ignored all the weak shots that Elio had lobbed in his direction in order to address “the matter at hand.”

“Am I what, Oliver?”

“Actually trying? Did you think you could coast because your dad is the teacher?”

“No, I knew I wouldn’t be able to. But you know what sucks, Oliver? I’ll tell you. Seeing every single goddamn person in the class kiss my dad’s ass.” 

“That’s not what’s happening, Elio.”  
Elio stood up, he was feeling too angry to sit down. “You’re the worst of all of them! You know that? What, do you want to fuck my dad or something? Do you want a job from him? What do you want? Because if you’re trying to get something out of him going through me with this ‘I care about you’ bullshit is not going to work. I see right through you.”

Oliver was laughing. Oliver was laughing and Elio thought he might cry. He had dealt with this shit with other grad students before. They all thought that if they pretended to take an interest in Elio that his dad would be more generous with them. It used to work until Elio wizened up. 

“I suppose you’re trying to stay at our villa this summer?” 

“What are you talking about?”

Elio felt it was his turn to laugh. “You’re kidding me, Oliver. You are my father’s TA and you are going to tell me that you don’t know anything about the program that he runs in Italy for grad students? You must really think I’m dumb. That hurts.”

“I don’t think you’re dumb, you know.” Oliver was practically whispering this. “You still haven’t asked me why I asked you to come into my office.”

“Fine, I’ll bite. Why did you ask me to come into your office?”

“Your dad is worried about you.” 

“What?”

“He asked me to meet with you and see if you were doing ok. He said you have seemed sad recently.”

“Why did he think I would talk to you?”

“Honestly?”

“No, lie. Yes, honestly, you annoying cow.”

“Because he told me that you hated me so much you wouldn’t lie to me to protect me.”

“I don’t hate you.” Elio sat back down and looked at his feet. He wasn’t a huge fan of Oliver, but he didn’t like being confronted with his feelings. When Oliver said it like that, it made him feel like the bad guy for not liking him. 

“Yes, you do.” 

“I’m sorry.” Elio didn’t know what he was apologizing for exactly, but he felt like he should.   
Oliver was still sitting on the desk. He looked so cool, leaning on the desk. Oliver moved to sit next to Elio in the chair next to him. 

“Did you notice I didn’t give you a grade on your midterm?”

“You wrote ‘see me’ that’s pretty much an ‘F’, no?”

“It was the best paper in the class, Elio.”

“What?” Elio shook his head. “But I have a ‘D’ in the class or something, how is that possible?”

Oliver got out his grade book and turned to face it towards Elio. He made a vain attempt at covering other student’s grades, but Elio didn’t even try to look at them. All he saw was the one next to Perlman, Elio. An A. Rage came back quickly, and even easier than before. 

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Doing what?”

Elio slammed the notebook down and poked Oliver in the surprisingly firm chest. “Dicking me around like this! Making me think I’m going to fail an intro class in a subject I love!” 

“You dad did not think you would react like this.”

Elio got really close to Oliver’s face. Close enough to smell his cologne and see the intentional line of his beard. “What.”

“He told me to challenge you or else you would coast. You were coasting. All you do is sit in the back and flirt with Marzia while your dad tries to lecture.”

“That’s not true. Besides, no one else is paying attention, everyone is staring at you the whole class. Do you know how tired I am of people calling you ‘dreamy’ or ‘so handsome’ outside class? I’m fucking tired.”

“Grow up, Elio. What are you, jealous?”

“HA.” Elio pushed past Oliver, getting really close to him before he finally found his way to the door. 

“Are we done?”

“Yeah, I think since this meeting was bullshit I’m going to go ahead and leave.”

“Elio-”  
“Bye, Oliver.”

Elio walked out and slammed the door shut behind him. The problem was that they were doors that didn’t slam, so it was more of a gentle push and then a click shut. There were students sitting outside his office that weren’t there to hear the announcement that Oliver wouldn’t be meeting with anyone else, but Elio didn’t feel like doing Oliver’s job for him. He chuckled on his way out. He heard Oliver sigh, and he knew that they had probably heard most of the fight. He was happy that he had the last word. He felt powerful. More than anything, he felt ready to drink. 

Elio practically skipped back to his house to greet Marzia. Marzia was on the phone, and it appeared that she was already well into her drinking for the night. She looked like she was in pain. Elio was worried. 

“Please, don’t do this, - no- why are you doing this to me? Can we talk later, please? Wait! Fuck.”

Marzia turned to Elio. “Why do you look so goddamn happy?” She was slurring. 

“Wow, I need to catch up to you, also may I suggest water? It’s a great drink. Let’s get you some.”

“Oh. My. God.” 

Marzia had stopped in her tracks. It was clear that she thought she had just come to a revelation. “You fucked him. YOU FUCKED HIM IN HIS OFFICE.”

“First of all, please lower your voice, you drunk bitch and second of all, no we did not fuck and never will fuck.”

Marzia crossed her arms. “I’m not drunk.”

“We didn’t fuck, we made love.”

Marzia screamed again, “I KNEW IT ELIO, YOU ASSHOLE.” She was hitting him with drunk, sloppy fists. 

“I’m kidding Marzia, chill. Are you okay? Who was that on the phone?”

“I think I’m single again, Elio.” 

Elio had to use all of his energy to not be outwardly happy about this news. He frowned, then he realized he was probably frowning too much, so he went to neutral. “Do you know that for sure?”  
“She sounded pretty serious when she said, ‘why don’t you just fuck that guy you’re living with’.”

“Shit.”

Marzia just nodded. Elio felt a crushing weight of guilt. He had loved Marzia, it was true, but he really only loved her as a friend, now. And her and this girl he hadn’t even met yet seemed like they were doing really well together. “You don’t know for sure yet, right? Let’s just go out to the trashiest bar we can find and get fucked up and get pretty boys to buy us drinks.”

“You’re a pretty boy.” Marzia was leaning and swaying towards Elio. Normally, he would have been happy with this. He loved when Marzia called him pretty. He had other things to attend to. He had to get dressed like a 21-year-old American and he had no idea how to do that. He settled on a polo and jeans. 

He pulled some alcohol from his father’s alcohol cabinet as he walked around the corner. 

“Hello, Ellie, how was your meeting with Oliver?”

“Fine.” Elio wasn’t mad at his father for setting him up with this meeting, he was still only mad at Oliver. 

“You boys work out your disagreement? He’s a good TA, Elio, one of the best I’ve ever had.”

“Does he know about our villa?”

“I don’t know, why do you ask?”

Elio was pouring himself a stiff drink. “It just seems like everything he does is to get to our villa and to use you, papa.”

“Elio.” Professor Perlman sighed, he didn’t know how to fix Elio’s perception of Oliver, but he didn’t think it was his job.

“I’m going out with Marzia. Don’t wait up.” 

“Okay, love, be safe.”

Elio nodded and took his full drink to where Marzia was fixing her makeup. He kissed the top of her head. “You look amazing.”

“As do you.”

“Let’s go, we have dancing to do!”  
Elio and Marzia walked arm in arm to the nearest and shittiest dive bar. It was famous for a couple of things. Not caring about fake ID’s, having cheap beer, and being full of college students. Elio and Marzia were clued in on this bar from pretty much the first day they stepped foot on campus. When they walked in, it was already crowded. Elio loved this bar. He could pretty much get with anyone he wanted to. It was all very anonymous. 

He flirted, mostly with the intention of getting free drinks, and it usually worked. This time, it was working really well. Like almost too well. It was clear by the way that this guy’s hand was moving up his thigh that he was expecting something in return for the drinks. Elio didn’t know how he felt about this. He got a weird feeling about him, but it had been a while since he had gotten anything, and he had a feeling that’s why he was so angry all the time. 

Elio had to go to the bathroom. He thought it would be a good time to collect himself. He looked over at Marzia to make sure she was okay, and she was. She was talking to her friends in a huddled group. Sometimes, they were better at comforting her than he ever could be. If anything, he was impressed that she was able to make friends so fast, but he understood why people would want to be friends with her. 

As he was standing up, he felt a hand push him back down on the stool. “Where in the fuck do you think you’re going, pretty boy?” 

Elio swallowed nervously. He liked this a lot less when it was this man calling him pretty. “Just the bathroom.” He didn’t know if he needed help, but he didn’t see himself getting it from anyone in the bar. He wasn’t about to get Marzia involved, she had been through enough. The bartender was on the other side of the bar, tongue deep in some girl, so he was out of the picture, too. 

“Why don’t I join you?”

A hand came from behind Elio and pushed the man’s hand off Elio’s shoulder. “How about you don’t.” Elio recognized that voice. It was Oliver. He was probably drunk, so he turned around to look and see who it was. When he turned around, he not only got a face full of Oliver, he got a lip-full of him. Oliver pushed his lips against him for a brief, chaste kiss. He also whispered in Elio’s ear as he came up for air “this guy bothering you? I’ll get you out of here, Marzia too.”

Elio just nodded. He didn’t know what else to do. 

“Hey listen, buddy, I don’t know what you’re doing, just stepping in on what I was doing with my pretty boy, but as you can see, I have staked my claim. You can walk away.”

“Is that so?”

The man stood up and tried to push Oliver. It was like watching a kid try to push an adult. Oliver didn’t even flinch. The man stood on the bar stool and punched Oliver in the face. “I was here first, you fucker! The twink is mine!” 

“That ‘twink’ is my boyfriend.”

Elio and the man responded at the same time “what?”

“Fuck you, you fucking asshole!” The man turned his rage to Elio. “You were leading me on! You were taking free drinks from me just to turn me down! How dare you!” He started waling on Elio, landing every third punch. He wasn’t very strong, but Elio started to taste blood after a couple of them. 

Oliver, with a bloody lip, dragged Elio out of the bar, having grabbed Marzia along the way. 

Elio spat on the sidewalk, it was mostly blood. “What the fuck, man? I had that under control.”

Oliver laughed. “Sure, you did. What were you going to do? Give him a BJ in the bathroom in exchange for him buying you so much lite beer? Give me a break.”

Before Elio could retort, they were interrupted by Marzia, “can we please go home? I don’t feel so good.” She didn’t look good, either. Well, she looked good considering it looked like she could be sick at any time. 

“I’m walking her home. Bye, Oliver.”

“You know, it wouldn’t kill you to say ‘thank you’.”

Elio flipped him off as he walked and carried Marzia away. “Thank you, fucker!”

The police had pulled up then. Elio wondered if someone had called the cops on that guy inside, but more likely it was about something else entirely. When he had some time to think, he thought about the fact that he had just kissed Oliver. Well, Oliver had kissed him, and it wasn’t bad. Shit, Elio really was drunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading/commenting/kudos'ing i'm at @/lilchalamet on the ol tumblr


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of the party.

Once upon a time, Elio believed that he was immune from hangovers. That was then, and this was now. He sat up and regretted how fast he chose to do so. He eventually got all the way out of bed to go to the bathroom. When he looked in the mirror he was shocked. Not only did he have a split lip, but he had a faint black eye. Maybe that’s why his head was pounding so much. There was a shrill ringing that was bothering the hell out of him. He had no idea what it could be. 

“The phone!” Elio shook his head. Why did he say that out loud? He looked at himself one more time, feeling more badass than anything and went to pick up the phone to give whoever was calling at eight am an earful. He couldn’t believe he had to go to class like this. He would never understand why the most popular day to go out was Thursday. 

“Hello?” 

“Qui est-ce?”

“C’est Elio? 

Maybe this was the girl that Marzia was seeing, so he asked her if she was looking for Marzia. “Cherchez-vous Marzia?” 

“Oui.”

Elio put the phone down and went to shake Marzia out of what must be a much worse hangover. 

“M. She’s on the phone.”

Marzia gave a garbled response and rolled over. 

“M, wake up, she wants to talk to you.”

This seemed to have an effect on her, and she got herself off the floor of Elio’s room. When they went out, she would sleep on his floor. There was something about their personalities when they were drunk that made it impossible to be alone, even when they were sleeping. They couldn’t sleep in the same bed though, that was too dangerous, so they switched off whose room they would sleep in. 

Marzia got up and went to get the phone. Elio started putting on an outfit and considered how ridiculous it would look if he went to class in sunglasses and a hat. Too ridiculous. He was in all general ed classes on Fridays, so he seriously considered skipping, especially considering the shiner that he had on his face, but he knew he would get in trouble if he didn’t go to class. Having a dad that worked on the faculty that knew the reason you weren’t in class was that you were hungover was not a good move. Just because they weren’t classes he cared about he wanted to do well. 

While he was getting ready, he tried to eavesdrop without eavesdropping too much. He heard some snippets in French, but mostly he was listening to Marzia’s tone of voice. She sounded scared, and then hopeful, and then happy. Finally, she was back to laughing again. Elio breathed a sigh of relief. It was in the times that they were both between people and sad that they made the most mistakes. Thinking about mistakes made him think about kissing Oliver. A part of him wondered if that actually happened. He had dreamt about it last night. Except for last night, when he was dreaming, Oliver appeared in a halo of light and didn’t kiss him just to protect him. He kissed him because they were together. In his dream, he was smug as hell, because he was the one that had gotten with Oliver. He loved how all the people in his class were jealous as hell because he was the one that had claim over Oliver. This was not how it was in real life. In real life, he was fucked off that Oliver stepped in. Of course, it was Oliver and no one else that saw that go down. Now, Oliver had a one up on him. He had something that he could use against him. Judging by what an antagonist he was, he probably would use it against him. Elio decided that in his break between classes, he would march to Oliver’s office and demand that he not speak a word of what happened to anyone. 

He heard Marzia end the phone call and went to go check on her. She was what really mattered, not this weird fight he was getting himself into with Oliver. 

“And?”

“Things are fine, she was just upset about something at home, and was taking it out on me because I’m so far away.”

“I told you so. You’re a catch, M. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“Shut up.” Marzia shoved Elio. She knew he was a pain in the ass, but he was her pain in the ass, and she wasn’t about to drop her only connection to home while she was abroad. “We have more important things to talk about. I knew you liked Oliver.”

“I don’t like him. He just did that because he thought he was protecting me.”

“Wow, your knight in shining armor! I’m jealous!” 

“I hate you so much Marzia. He was not my knight in shining armor. Besides, he just kissed me to pretend to be my boyfriend.”

“Ok, yeah, E. He needed to kiss you and not just say ‘this is my boyfriend’ because that wouldn’t be ‘convincing enough’. Why can’t you just admit that he wanted to kiss you?”

“I think you want to kiss him. I think that pretty much everyone in class wants to kiss him. Maybe he’s just mad because that’s not the energy I’m giving him. He’s just mad because I’m not kissing his ass like everyone else and his tiny, fragile ego is bruised.”

“Not as bad as your face, Elio. He barely hit you, and you have a black eye. You bruise like a peach, you know?”

Elio blushed, he didn’t know why. It wasn’t like Marzia knew that he had considered what the shape of peaches looked like, but he never did anything about it. He wasn’t that desperate. Well, he wasn’t that desperate, yet. 

“Listen, as much as I love these talks we have, I have to go to class. So, while you bask in your love life and hangover, I’ll be trudging through my GE’s.” Elio kissed Marzia on the head and walked out. He was feeling weirdly generous with his love that morning and he didn’t have a clue why. 

As he was walking out of his last class of the day, somehow having survived all the incessant small talk and useless shit he was learning, he thought about changing routes. He could walk around the building or he could walk right by the office of he who shall not be named. Being as hungover as he was, he didn’t feel like making the extra steps of walking around the building. He thought he was in the clear when he walked by the door. Oliver was in there, and the door was open, but it didn’t seem like he had even seen Elio. He sighed, but when he heard the sigh come out of his mouth it didn’t sound as relieved as he thought it should, if anything, it sounded sad. 

Then, fast footsteps, then a hand on his shoulder. He turned and Oliver gaped. “Can you come into my office? We should talk.” 

Elio rolled his eyes but nodded. He figured it would be better to just get whatever Oliver was worried about over with so he could continue to live his damn life. Elio sat down in the same chair he sat in the day before. The day before seemed like forever ago, and it was five minutes ago. Oliver didn’t take his normal douchey professor position and sat in the armchair next to Elio, twisting his body awkwardly to face him. He reached out a hand and touched Elio’s faint black eye. Elio winced, not because of the pain, but because of how intimate the moment was. He pushed Oliver’s hand away.

“I’m fine, you know. I would have been fine. You didn’t have to do that.” 

“You were fine? This is how fine you were when I did step in. What were you trying to do? Get yourself killed? This isn’t Italy, you know. We’re not all free-loving and open here. How did you even get in? You’re not twenty-one, there’s no way!”

Elio grimaced. This was why he was mad, this was why he was so upset and wanted to talk to him. “What are you, scared that I’ll tell someone? Relax, Oliver, I’m not going to tell anyone. Wouldn’t want to ruin your squeaky-clean image. Unless you want people like Chiara to stop gagging for it in the front row of Philosophy 101.”

Oliver blushed for a second. Chiara was the most obvious one in the class. It was a pretty strong rumor that they actually were hooking up as an extra-curricular, but Elio didn’t think that was true. He was fairly confident that Oliver’s fake kiss was as far as he had gone with any student. 

“Elio.”

“I won’t go around school yelling that I finally bagged the most evasive teacher, or as some people say “TILF”.” Oliver looked confused, despite himself, and Elio clarified, “teacher I’d like to fuck. I mean, technically, it’s not true, right? Because you’re not a teacher, you’re a TA. What does that stand for? I used to think it stood for teacher’s assistant, but now I’m pretty sure it stands for Total Asshole.”

“Elio, please.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, Oliver, I thought you were smarter than that. Those letters aren’t even a little similar. I thought you were a genius, especially since my dad actually hired you. But I guess I was-,” Elio was talking, but he was no longer making any noise. Oliver was kissing him. They were not drunk anymore, they were in his office, and Oliver was kissing him. Just like that, it was over. 

Oliver wiped his mouth. “Jesus, do you ever shut up?” 

“Did you just wipe your mouth? Are you that disgusted that you wiped your mouth after YOU kissed ME? Fucking hell. I don’t have any diseases, okay? It’s not like you like me or anything, I’m not trying to wed you or some bullshit, you can calm down.” 

Oliver sobered. “Please don’t tell anyone about this, okay? I really need this job. It’s the only way I can afford school.”

Elio got serious, too. He did not expect this conversation to go in this direction, but he also didn’t think that he would ever kiss Oliver again. He wished he knew that it was going to happen so he could have appreciated it. Another thought he never thought he would have. “I’m not going to tell anyone, Oliver. I’m not actually that much of an asshole, you know, if you give me a chance.”

“I never said you were an asshole. I know that you think I’m one. I’m paying my own way through school. I have since primary school, and I need to have this job to afford this place or else I’ll have to drop out.” 

“I’m not going to tell anyone, okay?” Elio wanted to lighten the mood because even though he was not very good friends with Oliver, he didn’t want him to look so sad and stressed. It wasn’t a good look on him. “It would ruin my image, you know? Me, giving up on my firm stance of hating the teacher.” Elio didn’t realize, but he was inching closer and closer to Oliver as he was saying that. Like they were sharing a secret. Like all of a sudden, they had this world that no one but them knew about. It was safe, and Elio didn’t have to be the precocious and annoying brat that he always was everywhere else. Oliver wasn’t as guarded. It was nice. It didn’t last very long, but Elio felt compelled to kiss Oliver on the cheek. He moved quickly, he didn’t want his courage to go away. Oliver leaned into it and then quickly regretted it. 

“Thank you, Elio, seriously. I’ll try to not give you such a hard time in class from now on, okay?”

Elio rolled his eyes. He did not think that he would get into some kind of love fest with Oliver of all people today. “If you do that people will get suspicious. Besides, we have reached an agreement. Listen, I’m hungover and tired and I don’t want to do anything that I’m going to regret, so I’m going to leave. We good?” 

Oliver looked up at him through goddamn thick eyelashes. Elio kicked himself for noticing that small detail. He also kicked himself for not noticing it before. “We’re good. Have a good weekend. Try to stay out of trouble, okay?” 

Elio just rolled his eyes and went to stand up. He looked down and Oliver looked so small. He looked vulnerable and tired and he could see the bit of bruising on his face that he had gotten because of Elio. He was bruised and hurt and scared because of Elio. He didn’t think about that until now. Elio leaned down and hugged Oliver and when he was hugging him whispered in his ear, “thank you for coming to my rescue. My knight in shining armor.” 

Oliver looked shocked, but Elio just walked out waving. He saw that there was a student waiting to talk to Oliver so he winked back at Oliver and then flipped him off, to keep up the image. Oliver looked angry until he heard Elio talk to the student, “it’s all you, bud.” Oliver laughed. Elio was such a piece of shit, but he was a good kid. 

When Elio got home, it was nearly time for dinner. His mother was in the kitchen cooking, and he decided to go greet her. He walked in and she was bustling around the kitchen, producing amazing smells that he couldn’t wait for. 

“Hi, mom.” 

She dropped everything and turned to Elio, wiping her hands on her apron. “Hi, Ellie, how are you? Late night last night?” Her eyes were lined with the smile that was showing up on her face. 

“Funny.” 

“Where were you? I thought you would be home a lot earlier?”

“I was pulled into office hours.” Elio laughed to himself. He was quite clever when he tried to be. 

“Don’t tell me you’re still having that weird feud with Oliver. He’s a good kid, Elio. He doesn’t deserve an enemy in you.”

“Ugh, mom, we’re not feuding. I had to meet with him about my midterm. Don’t freak out. I’m an adult. I should be figuring out how to be dumb by myself.”  
“I know, piccino.” 

Elio hugged his mother and went in search of Marzia. He found her laying on his bed. She didn’t hear him walk in, she was engrossed in one of his books. 

“Oh?”

Marzia threw the book at him. “Jesus, you scared me! Don’t do that to me again!” 

Elio dodged the book and made a face. “Fine, I guess I won’t tell you that I was pulled into a certain someone’s office this afternoon walking home from class.”

This got Marzia’s attention. She sat up and turned to be fully facing him. She patted the bed next to her until he sat down. “Spill.” 

Elio shifted around. To get comfortable and to buy time while he was figuring out what to say. He knew he was eventually going to tell her everything, he always did in the end. “Ok, but when I tell you that you can’t tell anyone, I’m being serious. I shouldn’t even be telling you this.”

Marzia looked even more interested. She sat up on her ankles, ready for whatever Elio was about to tell her. Elio explained how he ended up in Oliver’s office and the conversation they had, leaving out the important part, being that they kissed twice more while he was there. 

“You’re leaving something out, I can tell. I don’t know why you’re doing that, but you’re going to tell me, so just get it out.”

“He sort of kissed me again.”

“Again? What the fuck, Elio?”

Elio put his head in his hands, he didn’t expect this reaction. “Are you mad or something?”

“You literally hate him, E. It’s all you talk about. How did you kiss him again? And you were sober, so you don’t have any excuses this time.”

“He might have kissed me to shut me up.”

“God.” Marzia looked away like she was talking to some unknown studio audience. “My best friend is a porn star.” 

“What the fuck Marzia? What does that mean?”

“Let’s review the facts, shall we? You got angry drunk kissed by our TA at a bar while he was ‘protecting you’. He then called you into his office, where you kissed again after you were fighting.” 

“Marzia, please don’t tell anyone. I’m begging you. If people find out and he loses his job he won’t be able to pay for school.”

Marzia laughed. “First of all, Elio, I’m not going to tell anyone because I am a great friend. Second of all, I can’t believe you’re finally admitting you care about him. This is a huge step.”

Another voice chimed in, “who does Elio care about?” It was Elio’s mother. 

“No one, mom.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Come to dinner, it’s ready.”

Elio stood up and gestured to Marzia that she had to keep her mouth shut about the Oliver situation. She signaled a zipped lip and followed him to the kitchen. Elio’s father was already sitting at the table. Elio went to sit down in his usual seat when his father motioned for him to sit a seat down. “We have a guest joining us for dinner today El.” 

Elio made a big show of rolling his eyes and moving over. He hated when his father had guests over. He felt like he was being shown off or he was some kind of mute that was only there to get the food he needed and stay silent. He wondered what old big wig it would be tonight. He looked at Marzia and it was clear she was thinking the same thing. She raised her hands in a ‘who knows’ gesture as she sat down across from him. A huge figure came out of the kitchen behind his mother just as he was taking a sip of water. Elio choked. Marzia couldn’t tell who it was as her back was to him, but he knew she would not react well. He quickly dabbed his mouth with a napkin and tried to make crazy eyes at Marzia for her to understand what was going on. She did not. 

“Oliver! You didn’t have to do that! You’re too kind.” His father singing Oliver’s praises clued Marzia in, and then he appeared, setting down a dish and finding his seat next to Elio. Marzia covered her mouth with her napkin, she was clearly laughing at this situation. Elio shook his head at her. 

Elio’s mother was sat down and then hit herself in the head with her hand. “Ah! I forgot a dish.” 

Oliver was quick to jump up. “Please, I’ll get it, you’ve done so much.”

Elio decided this was his time to confront Oliver, so he stood up too. “Let me help you.” Marzia just cocked an eyebrow at him and mouthed the words ‘porn star’. Once Elio got behind the swinging door to the kitchen he confronted Oliver with a finger to the chest. 

“What do you think you’re doing? Did you know that you were going to be here tonight? Why wouldn’t you tell me?” Elio shoved Oliver. It didn’t do much, he really was huge. He also hoped that his family couldn’t hear this through the door but was too heated to really think about it. 

“Not everything is about you, Elio. For your information, he invited me after I talked to you today.”

Elio laughed. He was angry, but he had no idea what to do with all of his anger. There was no way to release it. 

“You know, this might surprise you, Elio, but there are other people in the world. You’re not the only person that matters.”

Finally, Elio had a reason to use his anger. He pushed Oliver against the cabinet. “I know that, you goddamn doorknob. I just wish that I had known that you would be here invading my life.”

Oliver didn’t do anything to push Elio away. In fact, he got closer and whispered in Elio’s ear. “The only thing that you’re invading right now is my personal space.”

Elio got bold. Oliver saw the glint in his eye and balked, not knowing what to do. Elio planted a firm hand on Oliver’s crotch. Oliver’s eyes grew big, but he remained calm. 

“What are you doing?”

It was Elio’s turn to whisper in Oliver’s ear. “Am I offending you?”

Oliver grabbed Elio’s hand and held it for a moment. It was too intimate for two people that hated each other. “Just don’t.” That put a stop to that. Elio decided to lick Oliver’s ear in payback. Oliver barely held back a yelp. He pushed Elio away and got the dish in question. It had taken them way too long, and he didn’t know what he was going to do about that. 

When they walked back out, it was clear that Marzia and his mom and dad were talking. Marzia looked hysterical, but Elio was too busy thinking about other things to worry about what had caused that. He sat down next to Oliver after the said plate was put down on the table and served himself food. Quiet eating was happening, and Elio thought that it was almost nice having Oliver at the table. Finally, his father broke the silence. 

“Oliver, the reason that we invited you to dinner is that we have an offer for you.”

Oliver swallowed his bite, wiped his mouth with his napkin and looked up, expectantly. “Is that so, Pro?”

Elio took another bite of food, thinking nothing of it. “We would like for you to come and work on your studies with us at our villa this summer.”  
Elio choked on his bite and nearly spat it out. At the same time, he felt two kicks under the table. One, from a pointed toe flat, clearly from Marzia, and one from a barefoot, Oliver. 

“Doesn’t it seem a little soon to be offering that, dad?”

“He’s a great fit, he’s good at motivating the students and he is the only person that has been able to keep you in line in my class.”

Oliver laughed at this. “Kept him in line as in he is bad at your classes or he’s too good to focus?”

“You’ve read his paper, you can decide for yourself. You don’t need to decide about Italy today, but we wanted to let you know that the offer is on the table. If you can stand living next door to this guy for a full summer.” Elio’s father ended his sentence pointing around Oliver and at Elio. Elio blushed. Marzia finally let out the laugh she had been holding in for the whole conversation. 

“What’s so funny Marzia?”

“Oh, nothing, Mr. Perlman, sorry.”

Elio just shook his head at Marzia. He was going to have to deal with Oliver not just for the rest of the semester, but for the summer as well. He was screwed. Mostly, because a part of him was really happy with the idea of spending time with Oliver at their villa. Introducing him to Elio’s world, where he spent his time, who he really was. That didn’t matter though, they didn’t really get along, they were just friends because each one had dirt on the other. That was not going to last. 

Dinner finally ended, and Marzia and Elio were hanging out in Elio’s room. Oliver had gone home with hugs for everyone in the family, including Marzia, who looked a little too star struck. Elio had to pretend that he wasn’t timing his hug to everyone else’s in the family to see if he got more than them. He couldn’t tell, and that didn’t make him very happy. 

“I can’t believe you guys are going to be fucking like rabbits over the summer. What did you do in the kitchen? I had to lie about feeling homesick to make your parents forget that you were gone for so long.”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing, my ass.” 

“Marzia how am I going to survive him being in the villa for the whole summer?”

“He might not say yes, you know.”

“Oh god, what if he doesn’t say yes?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. This is an extra long update in honor of Sara's birthday. Feel free to drop me a comment or message me on tumblr @/lilchalamet thanks for reading, it means a lot y'all


	4. 4

“You are so dumb, sometimes, you know that?” Marzia was not going to let Elio be dramatic. Elio usually loved that, but for once, he wanted to be able to pine over what he and Oliver didn’t have. He had the whole weekend to think of his plan of attack for when he saw Oliver again on Monday and he was thankful for that. 

Elio decided to play dumb. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Marzia.”

“Of course, he’s going to say yes. He loves your father, and he clearly likes you. Also, this is a huge opportunity for him.” 

“I hate that I care, that’s all.” Elio didn’t know why he felt like he was going to cry. He was so used to being fucked around by past residents that he didn’t know how to feel about Oliver at all. In the past, graduate students had come to dinner just like Oliver had and after dinner had followed Elio up to his room. It happened with Maynard when he was just 15. Nothing happened between them, but Elio had a feeling that Maynard wanted something to happen so that Elio would vouch for him to his father. He always felt dirty when he saw Maynard at their villa. In reality, he had no part in the decision to bring him to Italy, but Maynard didn’t know that. 

“He’s not Maynard or any of those other scumbags. You know that, Elio.” Damn Marzia for being able to read his mind. It made sense, she was always there. He was so happy that she was always there, he didn’t know what he would do without her. 

“How do you know?” 

“I just know, E. He’s a good guy. He’s shy, I can tell. He doesn’t understand why he’s the center of attention in class.”

“That literally cannot be true.”

“Think about it! Every time you razz him about being this hot teacher he gets embarrassed. He must have gotten embarrassed when you gave him an earful in his office, right? He literally is just not used to people paying so much attention to him.”

“I don’t know how that’s possible. He’s walking around looking like a Greek god and we’re supposed to act like he’s just a normal intellectual? It doesn’t add up.”

“Ha! I knew you thought he was hot. I don’t know why it took you so long to admit that to me, your best friend, but I’ll let it slide.”

“Of course, I think he’s hot. I’m not blind. I just don’t love the way he goes about doing anything.” Elio was trying to distract himself from thinking about if he would ever get to kiss Oliver again. He knew that he probably wouldn’t, but damn did he want to. He decided that he was going to convince Oliver to go to the villa. The best way for that would be to tell him that they could be friends, that this would work well for both of them. He would still be a menace in class because that was something he wasn’t willing to give up, but he would try to be better to Oliver one on one. 

“Listen, there’s still a while until your dad will look for someone else, I’m telling you. He has time to say yes. Your dad clearly loves him.”

Elio didn’t respond. He didn’t know what he would say, but he didn’t think he really needed to say anything. Marzia was right. She always was. He used to hate that when they were younger, but he’s gotten used to it. And, after all, it usually helped him in the end. He learned that it was just better when he listened to her instead of ignoring her advice and then paying the price. 

The rest of the weekend went by smoothly, Marzia and Elio had fallen into a nice routine of working on homework together on the porch. Elio loved how easy it was to be with Marzia doing anything or nothing. He wondered if he would ever feel that way with someone he was romantically involved with. He usually stopped himself from thinking about that too much, because it made him realize he lost Marzia and would never be with her like that again. It just didn’t seem like that could work out. 

They decided not to go out Saturday night because Thursday night had taken so much out of them. The family sat down for a nice dinner, no guests, just them. Elio liked that because it was exhausting trying to impress the guest as much as his father wanted without being too overbearing and precocious. He never seemed to be able to hit that sweet middle spot. 

Monday came, and Elio had decided that he was going to go to Oliver’s office hours to talk about the villa. He was going to say that he wanted Oliver to say yes. He didn’t know if Oliver cared what he thought, but for some reason, he felt a burning desire to tell him that it would be an amazing opportunity. He wanted to show that he had turned over a new leaf, so he was going to be really respectful in class. He figured that no one would think it was weird, but he was still nervous about it. 

Oliver called his name in roll like he was waiting for an anvil to drop on his head. “Elio Perlman?” He knew that Elio was there, he never missed a class. It almost seemed like he didn’t even want to call out his name. 

Elio tried to sound sweet and innocent without sounding like it was a put-up job, but it didn’t work. “Here!” 

Marzia looked at him confused. In fact, the entire class seemed to turn back to the back of the room to see what was going on. It seemed like they all thought that he was planning something major and they wanted to be there to see it go down. Oliver looked up from the list and looked confused, but Elio was just smiling at him. He was going to turn over a new leaf if it killed him. 

“Okay, Jen Porter?” Oliver kept going down the list and finished role. Finally, Elio’s father came in to start the lecture. He came in late, in a rush, which was confusing and almost never happened. He was holding a VHS and made an announcement to the class. 

“Hello, all, I’m so sorry I’m late! Something has come up, and I am needed to supervise, so I will be showing a movie today. Mr. ________ will be watching the class.” Elio might have turned over a new leaf, but there was no way in hell that he was going to learn Oliver’s last name. 

Elio’s father rushed out of the room. Elio made a note to ask about that later. Oliver turned the lights out and started the film. It was called “The Quiet Earth” and it was about a man that woke up alone on Earth. Elio had already seen it because it was one of his father’s favorite movies to discuss. He loved talking about the idea of self when a person is alone and it tended to fit into any class he taught. He couldn’t think about this too much though, because he felt a hand tap his shoulder. He didn’t want to assume who it belonged to, but he had a pretty good idea. He turned around to see Oliver. 

“Can we talk for a second?” Oliver nodded to the door. Elio nodded and made a gesture that said ‘after you’. 

Oliver pushed the door open only a little bit, as to not let too much light into the dark lecture hall. He held the door open for Elio as well. He looked tired like he hadn’t slept all weekend. 

“What’s the deal, Elio?” Oliver was running his hands through his hair, and Elio had to try not to notice how attractive that was. He barely heard Oliver’s question. 

“What?”

“What do you have planned? Can you just tell me? I really don’t’ have time to go through this with you this week. I have midterms, too, you know. And whatever scheme you’re cooking up, I just can’t deal with it. I’m tired, okay? And this ‘I’m a respectful student act’ is not working. So, spill.” 

“Oliver-”

“What, are you going to put something in my coffee? Put pins in my office chair? Steal my notes for the class and pass out test answers? What’s the big plan?” 

Elio was shocked. He didn’t know how to go about explaining himself, because, frankly, he didn’t know if even he could explain his abrupt change in behavior. “Oliver, I don’t have anything planned, really.” Elio slid the sleeves of his way too large sweater over his hands and scratched the back of his neck. He felt incredibly vulnerable, which was a new feeling with Oliver, and he didn’t know if he liked it or hated it. “I was going to try to talk to you at your office hours today, actually. If I could get past all of your fans, of course.” Elio nudged Oliver, hoping to get a laugh or a smile out of him, but his face wasn’t budging. 

“Why should I believe you?”

“I was going to tell you that you should say yes to my dad’s offer. It would be an amazing opportunity, and I don’t want you to say no because I’m an asshole.” 

Oliver laughed. “Oh my god, you really think highly of yourself, don’t you Elio?”

Elio was the one that looked confused now. “What?”

“You think that I would say no to your dad’s offer because of what you think of me? You’re kidding, Elio. Why do you think that I care so much about you that your opinion of me would stop me from saying yes?” 

Elio folded his fist and put it under his jaw to hide the lump forming in his throat. He thought that he might be able to push it down if he tried hard enough. He nodded and looked down. He wanted to light himself on fire for being so, so stupid. Of course, it wasn’t about him. It didn’t make sense that Oliver would care about him at all. He was starting to feel like any other student in class, a fan of Oliver’s that would get nothing back from him. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry, that was stupid of me. I’m- I’m gonna go back to class.” 

Elio turned and walked back into the classroom, thankful that the darkness hid the tears threatening to come out of his eyes. He knew that he would have to explain what went on to Marzia later, and he was not looking forward to that conversation. It also killed him that he expected Oliver to stop him, to say that it was all a joke, that he wasn’t really mad at him at all, but that didn’t happen. He didn’t even go back in through the same door. It was like he was ashamed of having talked to Elio at all, of being in the same place as him. He walked in through the lower door and took his normal seat and sat there until the class was over. He stopped the movie and turned on the lights. 

“Ok, we’ll finish this next time. I hope you guys paid attention because Professor Perlman doesn’t just show movies for fun. This will be on the final in some way, so be ready for that.” There were groans around the class, but not very many. It was a pretty interesting movie, so people paid attention for the most part. 

Everyone had gotten up and left already, most people had already packed up their things before the class even ended. Elio was sitting motionless in his chair, still confused from his conversation with Oliver. Marzia yanked on his arm and he put his notebook in his backpack. 

“Come on, weirdo, I’m hungry and I’m jonesin’ for a bagel.” Elio rolled his eyes. Marzia was trying to nail what she called “American slang” recently and the results were mixed, at best. 

“Ok, American Queen, let’s go get you a bagel.” Elio hoped that him not making fun of her for that would help him avoid the conversation about Oliver, but he should have known better. 

They walked to their favorite deli and sat down at the two-person booth that they always sat in. They didn’t go so often that the people that worked there recognized them, but it was definitely close to that. Elio secretly wanted to be a regular there, it felt like that would be an accomplishment. 

After the waiter came over and took their orders and brought them their coffee, Marzia looked at Elio expectantly. Elio knew this was going to happen, and he dreaded it still. “As far as I can tell, this can go one of two ways. You can either tell me what happened and we can discuss it like adults, or I can eat this bagel so slowly that you will break and tell me because you don’t want to spend a second more at this diner.” 

“Have you been watching mafia movies to learn English again? Damnit, Marzia.” 

“Don’t avoid the question. And maybe I have! At least I’m trying to better myself, you insolent bath plug.” 

Elio took a deep breath. She was right. He was going to tell her eventually. He got a second to breathe as the bagels came over. “Fine. Basically, he thought I was up to something because I was behaving ‘too well’ in class.” Elio took his time with the air quotes, really letting the sarcasm drip from his voice. He didn’t want to betray his feelings because he didn’t even know what they were. But, knowing Marzia, she would know before he did, and he didn’t want that. “I told him that I just wanted him to say yes to coming to the villa.” 

Marzia seemed confused, which made sense because Elio hadn’t really told her anything. “He was mad at me because he thought I was trying to prank him. But I told him that it was because I didn’t want him to say no to my dad because of me, and then he got even madder.” Elio didn’t expect to say so much, so fast, but he was on a roll and didn’t show any signs of stopping. He used to accuse Marzia of having the kind of face that you just wanted to tell everything to, and she didn’t understand but he knew it was true. 

“Why do you care? You don’t even like him, right?” Marzia seemed like she was trying to help the situation, but, in reality, that just made him feel worse. 

“That’s the problem, M. I think we could have been friends. Especially since he seems like he’s going to say yes to my dad. I can’t deal with him hating me for a full summer and living right next door to me.” Elio was willing himself not to cry again. He had been doing okay so far, but he didn’t feel very confident. Marzia seemed to notice this. She reached across their small table and held his hand. 

“Elio, he’ll come around. And if he doesn’t, that’s his loss. Besides, maybe you’ll have some angry sex or something and you’ll feel better.” 

Elio pulled his hand out from Marzia’s. What the fuck did she think she was saying? He tried not to hate her for saying that, because he knew she was joking, but it didn’t feel great. He pulled out his wallet and slapped some money on the table. “I am going to go, please don’t follow me. I want to be alone.” 

Elio didn’t know where he was going, but he was glad that Marzia respected that he wanted to be alone. There was a reason that they are best friends. He eventually found himself walking back home, and he heard his father on the phone. 

“Oliver, I don’t understand! You’re perfect for the position, I can’t imagine offering it to anyone else.” 

Elio couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A manic part of him hoped that Oliver was talking to his father from his office, and he was off. He ran out the door, slamming it shut by accident and let his legs take him to Oliver’s office. 

He didn’t think about knocking, and no one was outside because it was after his office hours, so he just barged in. His suspicions were correct, just as he walked in, he heard Oliver hanging up with his father. “Okay, Professor, I’ll try to come up with it, I just can make you any promises.” He hung up and looked at Elio. Elio had never seen him look so angry before and he wanted to look away, but he didn’t. 

“I can’t believe you!” 

“I could say the same thing, Elio! What the hell are you doing here?” 

Elio took a step forward until he was leaning over the desk that Oliver was sitting at. “You told me that you were going to say yes to my father. Why did I just hear you turning him down? That doesn’t make any sense.” 

“Elio.”

“I know that you hate me, and I deserve that, but I’ll leave you alone, the whole summer, I promise! You won’t have to talk to me at all!” 

“Why do you care so much? You’re the one that hates me, Elio, not the other way around.” 

Elio sat on the desk in the way that he had seen Oliver sit on it before. “Because I don’t hate you, Oliver. I don’t know if I ever did.” Elio felt ashamed because all of a sudden it made sense. “I just wanted you to like me, and once I realized that wasn’t a possibility, I gave up.” 

“Goddamn it Elio. I don’t dislike you. Not all of us can afford just jetting off to Italy, you know.” 

It hit Elio like a train. Of course, he didn’t have the money to fly to Italy. Part of the bargain was that it was free room and board and pretty much everything else, except the flight. “Shit.” 

“Welcome to the real world, Elio. Now, since we are no longer in office hours, if you could please see yourself out.” 

Elio looked at Oliver. He really looked at him. He looked so tired. A part of Elio wondered if he should ask him why he was so tired, but he didn’t want to push his luck, especially considering what he was about to do. He stood up and instead of walking toward the door, he went over to Oliver and hugged him. Hugged him with the weight of a thousand apologies, and felt nothing in return. It was like hugging a block of marble, which made sense because Oliver was statuesque as all hell. He released Oliver and started to walk out. “I really am sorry, you know.” 

“I’ll see you in class. Please shut the door behind you.” The tone of Oliver’s voice matched the hollow click of the door. Elio was fucked. He was fucked because he realized that he only thing he cared about now was getting Oliver to Italy and making him happy again. He didn’t know if he could do either of those things, but goddamn it, he was going to try.


	5. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe Elio could be friends with the total asshole. Maybe.

Elio did not expect things to go this wrong this fast. He thought that his prepared speech would have gone really well if he was being honest with himself. But now he knew what he had to do. He was going to get Oliver to Italy if it killed him. He was going to get the money for the plane ticket if he had to sell a vital organ. He just felt deep in his heart that he needed to give Oliver that chance. Even though Oliver hated him, he felt like he owed it to him considering how douchey he had been in the first weeks of class. 

When he got home, he went straight to his parents. He was going to talk to them at their most vulnerable. When they were relaxing from the day and smoking their last cigarettes. Normally, he would have gone to his room to really think about what he was going to say to his parents, but this was too important for that. He stormed right into the living room to give them a piece of his mind. 

“We need Oliver to come to the villa this summer.” Elio saw that his father didn’t look surprised at all if anything he looked like he was about to get him to use Oliver’s last name, whatever it was. “Dad, you said it yourself, I heard you. He is the best person for the position and he already knows you so well.” 

His mother, on the other hand, looked a little more shocked. Or, she was at least putting on a façade so that Elio didn’t feel so bad. “So, you don’t hate him anymore, piccino?” Okay, now Elio knew that she was ribbing him for his previous breakdowns about him that she surely heard in their small house. 

“I can’t force him to say yes. It’s his decision, Ellie.”

“Please.” Elio hated how desperate he sounded, but he really needed to do this for Oliver. He had no idea why he wanted to make this happen so badly, but it was killing him. He realized that he just wanted to be able to be the one to tell Oliver that it was going to happen. He wanted to see the look on Oliver’s face when he found out that he didn’t have to worry about money. He wanted to be the one that would make Oliver’s dreams come true. He shook his head at that last one. He did not expect his inner monologue to be so dramatic. 

“He hasn’t given me an answer yet, Elio. He hasn’t said no, there’s still hope.” 

Elio thought about whether or not he should tell his father what Oliver had told him, and decided that he would rather ask for an apology than for permission. It’s probably what Oliver would do in his situation. And, Oliver was already pretty mad at him, so he figured it couldn’t get any worse. 

“He’s going to say no.” 

“Oh?” Elio thought that his dad looked a little too smug. 

“He can’t afford the flight and he’s probably not going to tell you that because he sure as hell didn’t want to tell me. I pretty much had to force it out of him.”

“Is that true, Elio?” His mom was the one asking. She sounded sad. She was still sitting in her armchair, but she stood up and walked over to where Elio and his father were standing. “Honey, we should tell him not to worry about the flight.” 

Elio interjected, he felt like he had to. “If you guys just tell him you’re covering it, he’ll know that I told you about the problem.” 

“I’ll figure it out, Elio, don’t worry.” 

Elio was nervous. He was generally nervous, it was the energy he gave off. Well, that was according to Marzia. She once told him that his “aura was yellow”. He had never rolled his eyes harder, but he was bouncing his leg in his class, so maybe she had a point. It wasn’t a class that he had with her, so there was no one there to put a hand on his leg to stop him. He was on his own. 

He was so busy thinking about Oliver and whether or not he was going to be able to come to Italy that the class went by in a breeze. He felt like he blinked and it was over. When he was walking out, he heard people talking about a test and realized he hadn’t heard anything about a test. He probably wasn’t going to study, but he might think about it for a second or two. 

He was walking by Oliver’s office, which was a walk that he had learned to be a little wary of, but in the end, his exhaustion at the end of the day won over being afraid of running into Oliver. The door was open, and there was someone inside talking to Oliver. It was a woman. He couldn’t see her face, but she looked really angry. It struck Elio as strange that the door wasn’t shut, but he was too entranced to keep walking. He was staring, he felt himself staring, but he couldn’t look away. Luckily, Oliver hadn’t looked up. He figured he didn’t have much longer to openly stare, and he was right. Oliver looked up and made direct eye contact with Elio. If Elio didn’t know anything about Oliver, he would say that it looked like he had been crying. Surely, Oliver was too proud to let anyone see him cry. Unless it was someone really special. Then, it hit Elio. This was probably the girl from the photos on his desk. He went to walk, well, run away, but it was too late. 

He heard Oliver because it seemed like he wanted Elio to hear him. Pointedly, he said, “You’ve said what you need to say. This conversation is over, because that is one of my students, and if I want to keep my job here, I have to help my students.” And then, louder with a hand signal to Elio, “Elio, please, come in.” 

The woman that was in the room walked out and shoved by Elio in a huff. Elio scrunched his eyebrows and quickly looked at the quickly walking away back of the woman and back to Oliver. He didn’t know if Oliver actually wanted to talk to him or if he was just a distraction. He lingered in the doorway, unsure of what to do. “Well, are you coming in or what?” Elio looked around and grimaced. Well, it was a smile? He wasn’t really sure what he looked like but he was just hoping he didn’t look like the Joker too much. 

Elio walked in. He sat down, not knowing what else to do. Oliver walked towards him, and then went all the way to the door. He closed the door and, still facing it, started talking. Elio braced himself for what was coming. “I got an interesting call from your father today, Elio. Do you have any idea what that call was about?” 

Elio looked up like the ceiling would have a script printed on it so that he would know what to say. Alas, it seemed like he would be on his own for this one. He decided to play it cool. Well, as cool as he could play anything. “I don’t know. My dad doesn’t really tell me anything.” 

Oliver laughed without feeling. It gave Elio a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was like the fight or flight mechanism in his mind was going off, but the rest of his body was ignoring it. 

“He invited me to see what he had run off from class to look at tomorrow.” 

Elio was shocked. This is not what he expected at all. He expected that it would have something to do with the conversation he had had with his father, but it turned out that it didn’t. He was waiting for something that would incriminate him, but he wasn’t hearing anything.   
“Oh?”

“And do you know why he wanted me to come with him on this trip?” 

“Because you’re his TA?” Elio was usually being a smart ass, but this time, he really had no idea what was going on. It felt like every dinner that his father had intellectuals over to. They would talk to Elio sometimes, but often they were talking above and around him, including him, but only because they felt they had to. 

“Because, Elio, he told me that there was a scholarship available for the person that helped him with this project. Have you heard about this scholarship, Elio?” Shit. He didn’t know if he should lie and say that he had, and then it would seem real or if he should just own up to it. 

Elio was practically whispering now. “I haven’t.” 

Oliver strode over to the desk and resumed his normal seat, on the edge. “Interesting. Why do you think that all of a sudden, we’re hearing about this for the first time?” 

“I don’t know, maybe my dad just found out about it?” 

Oliver slammed his hand on the desk. His huge hand. Elio was entranced. But he had to snap out of it. Oliver sounded so angry, but he wasn’t yelling. Elio never thought that he would wish that Oliver was yelling at him before. He was talking with a quiet intensity of someone that had really stewed in their anger. “Is it, Elio, because someone told your father that I couldn’t afford a flight to Italy? Someone that had no. Damn. Right to tell him about that?” 

Elio decided to come clean. Well, kind of come clean. “My dad told me that you hadn’t said no to him yet. You don’t deserve to lose this because of money. You are the best TA my father has ever had.” That was the closest thing to the truth that Elio could spit out. What he meant when he said that carried a lot more weight. It was ‘you are the best person that I have ever met. You are the only person that can call me on my shit that’s not Marzia.’ 

“Why do you think that I want your help, Elio? Who are you to come and try to rescue me?” 

Elio was not going to be pushed around like this. “Because Oliver.” If Oliver was going to say his name so much, he was going to say Oliver’s with just as much intensity. “If you hadn’t wanted me to know about your money issue you wouldn’t have told me. You didn’t owe me anything, and yet you told me. I think you want this, but you aren’t willing to admit that you want help.” 

Oliver got up from the desk and starting throwing the picture frames away in the trash. They were all landing with crashes that made Elio jump. “You don’t know me, Elio. I have gotten myself this far without anyone’s help, and I don’t expect to start getting help now.” 

Elio knew that he should be afraid of how angry Oliver was, but he couldn’t bring himself to that. He, instead, walked over to Oliver’s side of the desk. “Will you please just agree to go so that you can give my dad the chance to win you over?” 

“I said yes already, I don’t need him to know that I am onto him. Just don’t say anything to him, okay?” 

“I’m sorry about whatever happened before I came in.” Elio felt like he might cry, but this wasn’t about him, it was about Oliver. “I hope things get better soon.” He grabbed his backpack and started to leave. A part of him wondered if Oliver was going to stop him. He didn’t know for what, but he hoped. 

“Thank you, Elio.” Oliver sounded so, so sad that Elio couldn’t help himself. He turned back, and in two quick strides before he could change his mind, wrapped as much of Oliver as he could in a tight hug. He didn’t expect anything back, but he got it, Oliver wrapped his huge arms around Elio and Elio let himself enjoy the moment. 

Oliver was the one to let go, and Elio was okay with that. He got way more than he expected. “You don’t know how to quit, do you?” Elio just shrugged and walked out. 

He sing-songed, “see you tomorrow!” Elio practically skipped home. He got back to find Marzia in a pile of homework. She looked up and looked pissed. 

“Wow is your aura red, Marzia! You should control that.” 

Marzia just flipped him off and went back to her work. Then she looked up again when he was still standing there after a second. “Why in the name of god are you so happy?” 

Elio just shrugged and went to his room. He decided not to say anything to his parents but already knew that he was going to ask to go along on the trip with his father and Oliver. He figured he could make something up as to why, but he probably wouldn’t need to. His father always wanted him to come to these things anyway. 

The day went by quickly, and finally, it was time for Elio to go to bed. He didn’t bring up the trip in front of Marzia, because he didn’t want her to know about it quite yet if it didn’t go well. Instead, he decided to confront his father while he was in the living room smoking his last cigarette of the day. He was going to ask him about it, not planning on asking to go, but he just wanted to know why he had asked Oliver to go. 

“Hi, papa.” 

“Ellie.” His father gestured to the seat next to him. He loved sitting with his father talking after dinner. 

“Is there really a scholarship?” Elio figured he wasn’t going to waste any time beating around the bush.

“I think you know the answer, Elio.” That was a no. He was doing this for Oliver. Well, for Elio and himself as well. 

“Can I come tomorrow? I’ll be quiet, I promise.” He needed to be there. That was where he was going to try to apologize to Oliver, where he wasn’t bogged down by the classroom all around them. He figured that if their excursion started with a truce, it would make him believe that the scholarship was real. 

“Sure, Ellie. I figured you wanted to go anyways.” 

“Dad?” His father looked up. “Can we not tell Oliver that the scholarship isn’t real? I really want this for him.” 

His father looked at Elio with too much understanding in his eyes, but he nodded. “Of course. Now, you might want to head to bed, we have a busy day tomorrow.” 

Elio wandered off and went to bed. He didn’t go to Marzia’s room tonight, he was too on edge to focus on that. He fell asleep pretty easily and dreamt of being friends with Oliver again. It had always felt like in a different life they had been friends first, and never enemies. They had been friends first and then lovers. It was ridiculous to think about, but Elio liked to imagine that world where things were easier.

He woke up the next morning and got ready before Marzia was even getting out of bed. He was too keyed up on the day to rest. He put on the clothes that he thought would work for the whole day and then he started to eat breakfast. 

He was in such a good mood that morning that he decided to branch out and talk to the two girls that sat next to him on the other side. He knew that they were also exchange students and he thought they were pretty nice, but he usually stuck to brooding and talking to Marzia. Marzia seemed like she was hungover, but he knew that it was because she had been up late last night talking to her girlfriend. She hated the time difference but loved being in America. 

He leaned over to them. One of them was from Germany, and the other was from England. 

“Hey, guys how are you doing?”

They both turned and looked at him. Elio really needed to work on his conversation skills. He was not good at starting conversations. 

“Isn’t your dad the professor?” That was the British one. He was pretty sure her name was Ella. 

“Yeah, what are you doing, trying to get us to snitch?” She was more German sounding, but she didn’t speak with an accent. Elio thought that he had more of an accent than she did. Her name was Isla. He only knew their names because they had all introduced themselves at the beginning of class, it was his father’s favorite thing to do. 

He put his hands up. “I was just trying to break the ice.” 

“We only signed up for this class because we heard the TA was hot, to be honest.” That was Ella. She was super honest and he liked that. It seemed like Isla didn’t want to admit to that, but she smiled and nodded anyway. 

“I guess so.” That was the end of the conversation because his father had just walked in. 

The rest of the class went by pretty quickly, Elio was more excited for what was to come. When he walked out of the classroom, he saw his father talking to Oliver. He told Marzia that he was going on a dig with his father and that she could just go home without him. What he didn’t tell her was that Oliver was going too. 

He sat through the rest of the class and it went relatively easily. For the first time, he was actually paying attention to the other exchange students’ snide comments and they were super funny. He made a note to himself to hang out with them when he got back from the trip he was going on with his dad and Oliver. 

He walked down to the bottom of the classroom after class was over after telling Marzia that he was doing something for his dad after class and she didn’t have to wait for him. He wasn’t ready for her to know that he and Oliver would be together because he knew that she would make a big deal about it. It wasn’t a big deal. Well, he hoped that it wouldn’t be a big deal, because he just wanted the chance to be friends with Oliver and have him believe that the scholarship was real. 

Oliver was talking to his father when he got down to the bottom of the stairs. He looked up and looked confused, but then it became clear that Elio might be coming with them. 

“I suppose Elio is coming with us, Pro?” 

“Yes, Oliver, I figured he could learn something.”

They got in the car together. Oliver was in the front seat sitting next to his father, and Elio in the backseat. He figured that he shouldn’t fight for the front seat if he wanted to befriend Oliver and get a truce. He was going to be nice to Oliver but he didn’t want to be too nice to raise suspicion. 

When they finally pulled up to the location, Elio had taken a nice nap in the backseat. He woke up to Oliver and his father talking about something intensely. Oliver looked back and he almost looked soft for a second before his gaze hardened. “Someone’s finally awake, I see.” 

Elio just grunted. His father spoke up, “Alright boys, let’s get along today, huh?” He practically skipped off he was so excited to see what they had gotten out of the river. That left Oliver and Elio behind walking over more slowly. 

Elio stopped Oliver before he could keep walking. “Truce?” 

Oliver looked at him bewildered. Like he couldn’t believe that this is what Elio wanted. He didn’t say anything, he was clearly waiting for Elio to explain why. He wasn’t giving Elio any easy ways out. 

“I just want to be friends. I want you to be able to come to our villa.” 

Oliver just smirked and walked away, looking back to see if Elio was following. He did, smiling a little to himself.


	6. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "That is, of course, if you still want to spend an entire summer dealing with this one.” His father reached over and tussled Elio’s hair. Elio’s breath caught for a moment. What if Oliver realized that he would have to spend the whole summer near Elio and that changed his mind?

Elio followed Oliver to the water, where his father was eagerly looking at whatever was being brought to shore. Elio loved seeing his father like this, even though he didn’t get to see it that often. Elio was never brave enough to ask to come along, usually, because he knew he was always at least a little in the way. But, since it was about making sure that Oliver was going to get this “scholarship” he was willing to take the risk and ask about going. He groaned a little at his internal monologue because it was unbelievable to admit that someone that had just come into his life was already making positive changes for him. 

Oliver was way ahead of him at this point after he had lost himself in thought, and he had to jog to catch up. Watching Oliver be so, so gentle with the statue that was dug up made Elio almost sad. It made him wonder if anyone had ever been that gentle with Oliver. Oliver struck Elio as someone that was willing to be the tough guy when the situation allowed it. It also seemed like he had taken on that role so many times that it was what people had come to expect from him. He was the protector, which, for most people, probably, meant he didn’t need or deserve protection for himself. 

Elio tried to keep himself out of the way as much as possible he was really only there to make sure that Oliver got that scholarship and nothing else. Well, he didn’t think there was anything else, but it was nice to think that maybe Oliver didn’t hate him anymore. He was happy that maybe today they could get to a medium friend ground and it wouldn’t make Oliver so mad to be around him. This was only so that the summer wouldn’t be as bad as it could be. If Oliver didn’t hate him when they went to the villa, that meant that he maybe would have another friend and he wouldn’t have to be so goddamn lonely all summer. Sure, he had friends, but they had such different interests than him that it didn’t seem like he really connected with anyone. He had shared interests with the previous graduate students that his father had brought to the villa, but they all seemed like they were just getting close to Elio in order to get more out of his father. This was a special case, though, because he had never met the person before they came to the villa. Usually, they just had them on paper, and they and to guess what kind of person they would be based on that. Sometimes, Elio thought about what Oliver would have looked like on paper. Really damn good was probably the answer. Since he was on a scholarship and a fellowship that meant he was worlds above where the other graduate students had been in merit. 

Elio was standing in the background listening to his father fake test Oliver. He liked to have these kinds of conversations with his grad students. He would say something that was incorrect on purpose and wait to see if the student would correct him or not. It was pretty funny to watch the students in the past go through internal hell deciding whether or not to correct him. Elio always enjoyed it more than he knew he should, mostly because he knew he would flounder in that situation, too. He heard his dad make the classic wrong statement, and he waited for Oliver’s panic to set in. It didn’t. 

Right away, Elio heard Oliver say, “I’m going to have to disagree with you on that one, Pro.” Elio shook his head. It was unbelievable. He had never heard someone correct his father so fast with so much confidence before. He heard Oliver go on to explain why his father was wrong, but he wasn’t listening. He was watching his father react to this, clearly impressed, too. Elio knew that his father was used to the nervous pause of students in the past, students that had set the bar low. 

After Oliver was done, he almost seemed apologetic. It was his father that broke the silence. “Flying colors.” Oliver looked up, and if Elio hadn’t known Oliver, he would say that Oliver had blushed at this compliment. 

“He does this every year.” Elio wanted to be a part of the celebration of Oliver’s goodness. He wanted to be a part of the reason that Oliver felt good about himself. Elio didn’t know why, but it was important to him. If he was watching someone else go through this, of course, he would know that it was because they had a crush on the person. That was not the case, though. Elio had just stopped hating Oliver and it was not a crush. Anyway, it would be pointless, because Oliver would clearly never feel the same way. 

Elio’s father looked at him and rolled his eyes in a way that said ‘that was a secret! You weren’t supposed to tell him!’. Elio knew that this was all a joke though, and he could tell that his father was impressed. 

“Listen, Oliver, the scholarship. I wanted to talk to you about it.” 

Oliver looked up from where he was focusing on the statue. “Oh?” Elio could have sworn that he looked in his direction, but it was too hard to tell. He really hoped that Oliver didn’t think that the scholarship was fake because he needed Oliver to believe in it. 

“I reviewed your fine work with the board, and they have decided to grant you the airfare for the trip.” Elio’s father paused for a moment to let that sink in. “That is, of course, if you still want to spend an entire summer dealing with this one.” His father reached over and tussled Elio’s hair. Elio’s breath caught for a moment. What if Oliver realized that he would have to spend the whole summer near Elio and that changed his mind? He didn’t think that he would turn down the trip because of that, but what if he had lied about the money thing? What if he really just hated Elio so much that he couldn’t handle being around him any more than he had to? 

“You know what Pro? I think I’ll be able to handle it.” Elio tried his best not to audibly sigh in relief. “Besides, you’ll need someone to keep this one in line, huh?” This time, it was Oliver that came over and tussled Elio’s hair. Elio tried to ignore the butterflies he felt in his stomach, tracing it back to hoping that their scheme would pay off, not that it was Oliver. 

Elio’s father was clapping, like a giddy schoolboy. “Excellent! We’ll have to celebrate tonight! You are going to love the villa so much, Oliver. And you already know us, and Elio of course and Marzia, who is our neighbor there over the summers. Oh, and don’t get me started on the food.” 

Elio was worried that this would make Oliver back out, his father being so excited, but he looked happy, too. Oliver looked like this was something that he really needed. This was good news that he really deserved. 

In the car on the way back from the site they visited, Elio enjoyed the comfortable silence that filled the car. It was a preview of the time they would spend together over the summer and Elio was really happy about it. 

They dropped Oliver off at his apartment, even though he insisted that he didn’t need it, and Elio thought about what it looked like inside. He wondered if Oliver had decorated it at all or if it was plain. He wondered if he had lived there with that woman he saw him fighting with earlier. He also wondered If he would ever get the backstory about that. He wondered if she was someone that was really special to him. He wondered if maybe he didn’t let a lot of people in. Elio didn’t love how much he thought about Oliver’s well-being lately. It was strange for him. It wasn’t that he wasn’t caring, it was just odd for him to be so caring of someone that didn’t feel the same way about him. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t often care about people as much as he should. Especially his parents. They gave him the world and he always worried that he wasn’t grateful enough. He knew he was one of the luckiest people in the world, he just didn’t know if his parents knew that he knew that. 

When they got back to the house, Marzia was there at the front door, waiting expectantly. Elio knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep this from her for very long, but he expected to at least be able to walk through the door in peace. It turned out that that was not in the cards. 

“Hi, Elio.” Marzia somehow said so much with so little. Elio used to be happy that they had been friends so long so they could basically read each other’s minds, but it was beginning to be a bit of a hassle, especially when he had a lot of thoughts about Oliver that he didn’t exactly want to share with her. Marzia was looking at him waiting, and he decided this was a bedroom conversation. At least, it was a conversation that he didn’t want to have in front of his father. He nodded his head inside and Marzia got the message because of course, she did. 

Once they got to his room, it was all over. “Spill.” Marzia was never one to beat around the bush, and sometimes, Elio appreciated that. The one thing that he did appreciate was that she always saw through his bullshit when he needed someone to. “Where the hell did you guys even go?” 

“We went to see what they had dug up for dad. It was nothing, really.” Elio tried this out, testing to see if Marzia would believe this lie. 

“Uh-huh. And how did Oliver like seeing it?” 

There it was. She knew. Of course, she knew. She always did, but maybe she was bluffing. He was going to call her on that. “What?” 

“You have that face.” When Elio didn’t respond, she clarified. “You have that face you always have when you’ve spent time with Oliver.” Elio was about to respond and deny it when Marzia stepped in, basically reading his mind. “And don’t even say that you don’t because you totally do. You’re so transparent, you know that?” 

Elio decided he was going to tell the truth. Well, as much as he could. He didn’t need Marzia to know about the scholarship, because that wasn’t his to tell. “Oliver was there because there’s a scholarship for him to come to the villa over the summer.”

Marzia seemed to buy this. It was the truth, as far as Oliver knew, anyway. Then, there was a knock at the door. The door wasn’t shut but Elio knew who it was. It was the kind of excited knock that one would expect from a teenager, but it was his father. 

“Ellie, would you be a doll and go pick up Oliver? I would go, but I have to help your mother make dinner. She wants to make a big one to celebrate Oliver coming to Italy with us and we don’t want him to be changing his mind, do we? Maybe take Marzia?” 

Marzia looked at Elio and laughed. “Sorry, Elio, I have a lot of work to do. You’ll have to go get him yourself.” Then, Marzia winked at him. That bitch. Elio flipped her off so his father couldn’t see and then left the room to get the keys from his father. 

Elio got in the car as a bundle of nerves. He turned on the radio to try to calm himself down and one of his favorite songs was playing. “Lady, Lady, Lady”. It was a song that always made him feel safe, in a weird way. It was like coming home after a long day away. It made him feel better as he was navigating himself to Oliver’s apartment. When he drove up, he saw Oliver walking back from the trash area. Elio would have stopped him, but he really wanted to see his apartment and how he lived. Elio realized that this might not be the most normal train of thought, but he was beginning to learn better than to think too much about his feelings when it came to Oliver. 

Elio parked and steeled himself as he walked up to go to knock on Oliver’s door. Elio looked down. There was a doormat. It said ‘so happy that you’re here!’ it didn’t seem very Oliver at all. Elio briefly wondered if it was something that the woman he had seen fighting with Oliver had bought. He heard movement inside. He heard Oliver get to the door and look through the peephole. 

“Elio?” Oliver was talking through the door like he didn’t believe that Elio was really there and didn’t want to open the door. 

Elio didn’t know what to say, so he just went for the first thing that came to his head. “Yeah, I’m here to pick you up for the big celebration dinner!” Elio cringed at how excited and happy he sounded. He wanted to sound excited that Oliver was going to be coming to the villa and they were celebrating that, but he was afraid that he had way overshot excited and had gotten himself all the way to crazy. He hoped that his excitement was muffled through the door. He hadn’t scared Oliver off, apparently, though, because Oliver was sliding the lock off the door and cracking it open. 

Oliver opened the door with the chain still on, like he didn’t believe that it was Elio even though he said it was. Oliver just stuck his head through the door, “do you want to come in?” Elio didn’t know if he wanted to. No, he knew that he did. He had come here hoping to see how Oliver lived. He nodded, scared of what his voice would sound like. He didn’t want it to shake with nerves. Oliver shut the door in his face. Elio didn’t know what that meant. Thankfully, it only took a second until Elio heard the chain on the door sliding back. Oliver opened the door and gestured inside in a way that said ‘come in’ and ‘sorry for the mess’ all at once. 

Elio stepped inside and immediately tripped over one of the many boxes in the entryway. Oliver caught him and held onto him a little longer than he had to, but it felt nice. Elio tried not to think about how much he enjoyed being in this position, but before he could, it was over. Elio then had to focus on not frowning from the loss of that feeling. “Going somewhere?” There were boxes everywhere. It was almost like Oliver was trying to move out in the middle of the night and Elio had caught him just in time. Elio caught sight of what looked like women’s clothes. It hit him before Oliver started talking. This stuff was probably the woman’s that had stormed out on him. 

“Turns out it’s frowned upon to continue to live with your ex-fiance.” Elio did some quick thinking. His eyes widened. Oliver was engaged when they had kissed. Oliver was engaged when they kissed multiple times. Elio had kissed Oliver when he was engaged to be married and now Oliver was no longer engaged. 

“Stop that.” Oliver’s voice cut through Elio’s spiral. He looked back up at Oliver confused. “I can practically hear your brain grinding gears and whatever you’re thinking is wrong.” 

“I” 

“If you think that I broke off an engagement because of a selfish brat that also happens to be my boss’ son then you are sorely mistaken.” Elio wasn’t going to cry. This was good. He didn’t want to be the reason that Oliver was unhappy, but it seemed like maybe he still was. Elio was transitioning between looking at the ground and looking at the ceiling. Anything to not make eye contact with Oliver. Oliver who was now laughing, bitterly. “Unbelievable. Truly, unbelievable. Who do you think you are? I have known you for three months and you think that you’ve waltzed into my life and changed everything? What did you think you were going to do? Save me from misery? Guess what? That’s not how anything works. Especially not for me. Especially not because of you.”

Elio bit his lip, but it was useless. He felt a tear drop down. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to think of his next move, but he realized that he didn’t have any. Not only did he not have any moves left, but Oliver had torn up the entire board game and thrown Elio’s game piece in the trash. For some reason, he still wanted Oliver to go to Italy. Despite this. He thought for a second about standing up for himself but decided it wasn’t worth it. God, he was such a pussy. 

“Okay.” Elio was nodding. He wasn’t crying anymore, thank god. “I’m, I’m gonna go. Yeah, I’m gonna go. You don’t have to come to dinner.” Elio turned around to make his smooth exit but he tripped on the same damn box he tripped on coming in. Elio wanted to kick himself for being the way he was, but then he was really happy about it because he heard something that sounded like laughter behind him. Elio turned around, nervous. Oliver was laughing. No, he was crying. Maybe he was doing both. 

Elio decided to walk over to him because at this point, there was nothing left to lose. Once he got closer, he spoke up. “Oliver?”

Oliver wiped tears away from his face and looked at Elio. “Fuck. Now you really must hate me, don’t you?” Oliver looked convinced. He had asked it as a question, but it might as well have been a statement of fact from the way Oliver said it. 

Elio looked around like Oliver was crazy. Because he was. Even after that yelling and anger, Elio didn’t hate Oliver. In fact, it was becoming more and more clear that he never hated him in the first place. Elio shook his head, which ended up shaking his whole body. “No. I don’t hate you. The only person that is going to hate you is my father if you don’t come to this celebratory dinner tonight. That’s like, the whole reason I’m here.” Oliver laughed at this. A real laugh, not one that was balanced out by tears, but a real and full-hearted one. Elio sighed in relief. “And, I know I have no place to say this, but anyone that lets someone like you go is an idiot.” 

“Elio.” That sounded like a warning, but it had no bite. Oliver didn’t mind that Elio had said that. Elio knew he was right. 

“I’m not going to take that back. I’m right, and I don’t care if you agree with me or not.” Elio crossed his arms in front of his chest and felt satisfied with himself. 

Oliver took a step closer to Elio. If Elio wasn’t thinking straight, he might think that Oliver was looking at his lips, but that couldn’t be the case. Not after all that had happened between them in the last ten minutes. Oliver’s eyes flicked back down and this time, Elio knew he couldn’t be imagining it. Well, he could, when he really thought about it. He had spent a lot of time wondering if the last time he had kissed Oliver would be the last time he would ever get to do that, and it was seeming like that wasn’t the case. 

He couldn’t think about that very much longer, because all of a sudden, Oliver was kissing him. Oliver was kissing him and he could almost cry he was so happy. It was the first time that it didn’t seem like Oliver was kissing him out of spite. Oliver seemed to really want to kiss him. Elio let himself get into the kiss for a moment longer before pulling away. Then, he thought better of it and went back in for another kiss. This time, it was Oliver that ended it, pulling away with the most genuine smile Elio had seen on him in a while. 

“We should go, we don’t want your dad to be mad at us.” Oliver winked at Elio. Elio turned to walk out the door when he felt Oliver’s arms around him, picking him up. Elio squeaked, unable to keep that in. Oliver was carrying him. Oliver was literally carrying him across the threshold of his apartment. When Elio turned his head to figure out what the fuck was going on, Oliver shrugged. “I can’t have you tripping over more boxes, your dad will kill me if you don’t come back in one piece.” Elio rolled his eyes, but he didn’t mind where he was. Oliver carried him all the way to the car and then set him down like he could break at any second. 

Once they got in the car, the air was full of comfortable silence. Except when Oliver asked right at the beginning, “are you sure you’re allowed to drive in this country?” Elio flipped him off and kept driving. He loved the feeling of being with Oliver in the car and not worrying where they stood. Well, it wasn’t very clear, but the uncertainty was fine, for now. They had time to figure out what was going on. They had the whole summer, after all. 

When they pulled up to Elio’s house, Elio tried to make his expression unreadable. He didn’t need Marzia to storm him with questions as soon as he came in, especially with Oliver there. As soon as he made eye contact with Marzia, he knew they would be having a long talk later. Thinking about this made him trip on the rug, and everyone in the living room reacted, laughing, except for Oliver. Oliver who caught him, like he knew that he was going to fall. 

“We might have to get you to start wearing helmets.” At this, Marzia raised her eyebrows even more. Elio had a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. All of a sudden, there was a ‘we’. Oliver was including himself in the ‘we’ of his family and his favorite people. Elio tried his best not to read too much into that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone that continues to read this. thanks for being patient with how long it took me to update! turns out it's harder than i thought to have 4 wip's 
> 
> i love, love, love comments they are the air i breathe and kudos mean the world to me
> 
> my tumblr is @/lilchalamet if you have concerns or if you just want to roast me for something dumb i did


	7. 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elio sees the way Oliver lives for the first time.

“We might have to get you to start wearing helmets.” At this, Marzia raised her eyebrows even more. Elio had a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. All of a sudden, there was a ‘we’. Oliver was including himself in the ‘we’ of his family and his favorite people. Elio tried his best not to read too much into that. 

Elio never expected to get so much joy out of one word. Especially one word that was only two letters long. It was like Oliver was actually seeing himself as someone that was going to be with the family for a long time. It filled his heart with so much joy that he found himself smiling. He looked up at Marzia and he knew he was screwed. She raised an eyebrow at him, in a way that said, ‘I have so many questions and we are going to talk about this, but I’m not trying to talk about it just yet’. 

Elio’s mother came out of the kitchen and saved the day. “Alright, everyone, it’s time for dinner!” 

Now was the hard part, where the fuck was Elio going to sit. He wanted to sit as close to Oliver as possible. He wanted to sit next to Oliver. If he was being honest with himself, he would have sat at Oliver’s feet. He would have sat on Oliver’s lap if that was as close as he was allowed to get. He decided that he was going to let Oliver figure it out because he was in no condition to do so. 

His father and mother sat at the heads of the table because that’s where they belonged. It was like they were gathering the group together in a warm embrace and making the whole room feel like home, no matter where they actually were. Elio always admired that about his parents, especially his mother. His mother had the ability to make any person feel important and at home with a smile and acknowledging that they were there. He always wanted to be able to do the same thing. 

Oliver sat down across from the empty seat Marzia was sitting next to, and patted the seat next to him, looking at Elio. Elio never expected for Oliver to ask for him to sit next to him but it filled him with so much joy he practically lifted off the ground. When he sat down next to Oliver, Oliver reached over and put a hand on his leg, in a way that no one else saw, but it was almost a thank you for being there and for supporting him through whatever this was. He looked up from looking down at the table straight at Marzia sitting across from him who looked so smug she might explode. Elio tried to put on a stern face to get her to stop, but he was too happy being around everyone to actually pull it off. 

“Well, Oliver, I guess we should give you a toast, as you have finally agreed to come study with us in Italy.” His father raised his glass and everyone else followed suit. Oliver looked embarrassed, but proud at the same time. 

Everyone clinked glasses and it was like Elio’s entire life was coming together. All of his favorite people were there, and he was finally at home. He hated how happy he was because he couldn’t trust it. As much as he hated it, he couldn’t trust that Oliver was really his friend or anything else. For all he knew, Oliver was just there to use him to get to Italy, like so many others in the past had been. He made a mental note to ask Marzia about that later because as much as he hated to admit it, she was the person to go to for stuff like this. Marzia was going to razz him for it, but just like he was, she was a careful observer and always knew what the people around her were doing, and for the most part thinking. As much as it was going to suck to talk to her about his insecurities, he knew that she would always have his back in terms of what was right and wrong. 

The night went on like most dinners that Elio was used to. The wine was flowing and the conversation was fun and lively. It became clear, though, when Elio’s mother was bringing out the dessert that no one was in the position to take Oliver home, including Oliver himself. Elio’s father made the declaration then, “Oliver, you must stay the night, it’s too dangerous for you to go all the way home now, in your condition.” 

Oliver looked up at this and seemed like he was going to protest before Elio’s father spoke up again. “You can stay in Elio’s room. That room is so big, he has way too much space.” Elio’s father took a meaningful pause. “Besides, you’ll have to get used to living that close to him all summer.” 

“Well, I don’t know if I want to have to see what my fate is going to be like then, Pro. Are we sure that’s a good idea?” Elio would have gotten hurt at this jab, but he realized it was more hiding what Oliver really felt about the situation. What he really felt was being shown with Oliver’s right foot on top of Elio’s. That spoke volumes and Elio had to train his expression to be able to react to what was being said about him. He felt a kick on his right shin, and he looked up to Marzia looking at him expectantly. Shit. Whatever he had been zoning out about, they had said something that clearly demanded an answer from him. 

Elio was too scared to risk it, so he decided to play dumb. “What?” 

Elio’s father spoke up with a laugh. “We were just making sure that it was ok that Oliver sleeps in your room tonight. Or else, we could call him a cab, I guess?” Elio’s father was looking at his mother, trying to decide what the best plan would be. 

Elio spoke up almost too soon. “He can stay in my room, that’s no trouble.” Marzia nearly coughed on her wine and managed to not make too big of a scene. Elio raised an eyebrow at her, and she managed to calm down. Luckily, Elio’s parents seemed to be none the wiser. The only problem was that Elio was not going to be able to talk to Marzia that night because he didn’t trust that Oliver wouldn’t be listening. 

When the meal ended, Elio pretty much bolted to his room, because he was not ready to deal with the third degree from either his parents, Marzia or Oliver. He didn’t really want to talk to anyone if he was being honest with himself. Being yelled at by Oliver really took it out of him and he was not sure if he could deal with any more serious conversations. He didn’t do very well with confrontation or with pretending to do well with confrontation. He was excellent at scurrying away when he had to, and scurry he did. He found his solace in his room and decided that he was going to go about his day like normal like there wasn’t going to be a very attractive man staying in his room for the night. He got into pajama bottoms and laid down in bed to read. He loved reading when he was a little drunk, it was his favorite way to read if he was being honest with himself. He felt like he really immersed himself in the book and there was nothing separating himself from the people in the story. This bit him in the ass, though, because he did not hear Oliver come in. 

When the bed lowered from Oliver’s weight, Elio practically jumped out of his skin. It was like he had totally forgotten that this was what was going to happen because he was so committed to acting like everything was normal. 

“Hi.” Oliver was acting like everything was normal, but then again, it didn’t seem like anything ever could be between them. Elio knew that he was too drunk to actually have a conversation with Oliver because the conversation they had had earlier had ended in screaming. Really, he decided that he wanted to push Oliver and see how far he could go. 

Elio sat up on his knees and scooted closer to Oliver, who seemed to reciprocate and get more onto the bed. He pulled away for a moment, and Elio didn’t like that, but then he realized that Oliver was simply taking his shoes off. He took a deep breath and decided that he was already so committed to this mission that he had to keep going. He continued to lean forward once Oliver came back from taking off his shoes. Eventually, they were forehead to forehead. All Elio could look at was Oliver’s lips. He wanted to think about the consequences of what would happen if this didn’t go in his favor, but he was so full of want, want, need, that he couldn’t think that far ahead. Normally, Elio was the person that would think a million moves ahead in a million different ways, just to make sure that he wasn’t going to get hurt, but he could never manage to do that with Oliver. With Oliver, the present was so intoxicating that he couldn’t even try to plan ahead if he wanted to. 

Elio liked to believe that it was Oliver that made the first move. He leaned forward and they were kissing. It was hard to tell who was the one that actually leaned the most forward, it was like they were playing chicken and they both wanted to lose, but they were kissing and that was really all that mattered. Elio was overcome with the desire for more, for more skin, for more of Oliver, and he started to take Oliver’s shirt off. Oliver took his shirt off without a problem, and Elio couldn’t believe what he was looking at. It was better than any statue he had ever seen. It was better because it wasn’t a statue, it was Oliver. Oliver that had the most beautiful body he had ever seen. He had no idea that this was what was hiding underneath the blazers that Oliver always wore, but he was so glad that he didn’t know until now because he would have never been able to pay attention in class if he had before. Oliver’s laugh was what caught him off guard. 

“You’re staring.” Oliver seemed like he didn’t understand why that was possibly happening. Like he didn’t know he was some kind of Greek god. 

Elio didn’t even have time to think of something less embarrassing to say. “Have you ever looked in the mirror? You’re not a real person! It’s like someone sculpted you.” Elio was angry and he needed more. He lunged at Oliver and Oliver reciprocated the kiss, but then pulled away. Elio had never felt so empty in his life. 

“We should go to bed. We can’t do this. Not like this. It would be wrong.” Elio didn’t know what he meant, if them being together was wrong, or if them being together while Oliver was his TA was wrong or if it was because they were both drunk, but he hated it nonetheless. He hated that anything about him and Oliver together was wrong, even though it had just started to become a possibility for him. More than anything, though, he hated how sad Oliver sounded. He didn’t sound like he was sad because they couldn’t do anything or shouldn’t that night, but more so that they shouldn’t do anything ever. 

Elio tried his best not to sound devastated. “Okay.” 

Oliver seemed to notice this, because as he was tucking himself into bed behind Elio, he whispered in his ear while surrounding him with his huge body, “we’ll talk tomorrow after class.” A shiver ran down Elio’s spine. 

That was enough. That had to be enough, for now. He had to go to sleep knowing that Oliver didn’t hate kissing him. He had to go to sleep knowing that they would talk. That Oliver would not be a fleeting figure in his life but would be coming to Italy to stay at his family’s house for the summer. That was what helped him fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully this chapter isn't such garbage, but this is one of my favorite au's and i don't want to fuck it up ya feel? anyway, thank you for reading/commenting/kudos'ing i love y'all because you don't understand how much it means to me 
> 
> tumblr is @/lilchalamet


	8. 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, Elio is a fucking idiot. This is one of those times.

Elio woke up and Oliver wasn’t there anymore. But when he sat up further, he saw that Marzia was sitting at his desk chair, with her arms crossed, staring at him. It scared the shit out of him, and he had just been disappointed in the fact that Oliver wasn’t there, so it was a lot of emotions to go through so early in the morning. 

“He’s in the kitchen with your dad.” Marzia looked way too smug for Elio’s liking. She looked like she knew exactly what Elio was thinking, and goddamnit if she didn’t know exactly what he was thinking. He thought that maybe he could pretend that he didn’t know what she was talking about. 

“Hm?” Elio was feeling good about being so nonchalant considering how close to the money Marzia was. Well, she was on the money. 

“Don’t be dumb. I want to know everything.” Marzia was not taking any shit. She stood up from the chair and came to sit closer to him. “We still have an hour before we have to leave for class and if you think we’re going to leave this house before you tell me what happened, you are out of your damn mind.”

“Would you believe me if I told you that nothing happened?” 

Marzia started laughing so hard on the bed that she toppled over. “No! You are one of the dumbest people I have ever known for a smart person, you know that, right?” 

Elio wanted to pretend to be annoyed, for at least a second before letting it all spill. He also really wanted some coffee. That had nothing to do with the fact that Oliver was in the kitchen, of course not. He drank coffee every morning, this was simply a part of his routine. Just because he woke up early because he missed the weight in bed had nothing to do with that. He was just acting how he always would. 

“Sorry I can’t be in such domestic bliss as you are with what’s her name.” Elio knew Marzia’s girlfriend’s name, he just wanted to be snarky. He was good at that, and it was fun to be good at something when everything else was so confusing. 

Marzia looked at him, waiting for him to keep going. Because she knew him too well. She knew him too well to know that he would eventually spill the beans and tell her everything because that was the kind of person he was. Elio sighed and accepted his fate. “Let me at least get myself a cup of coffee and then I’ll tell you everything.” He saw Marzia get excited and wanted to stomp that out as much as he could. “Settle down. It’s not that exciting, really.” 

Elio stumbled into the kitchen and saw his father and Oliver sitting at the table, going over what looked like lesson plans. He figured that it made sense that he would be doing that, but there was jealousy in the pit of his stomach that he really didn’t want to think about. They both didn’t notice him or ignored him. Either way, he didn’t really mind, he really had one goal: coffee. They both looked up when Elio reached for two mugs. He was standing behind his father, so he only made eye contact with Oliver. It felt good to have the power for once. Oliver couldn’t make any crazy faces his father was there. Elio reached for the espresso on the counter and pointedly bit his lip in concentration, hoping that that would elicit a response from Oliver. It seemed to. 

As he was walking out, Oliver spoke up. “Are you going to behave in class today, Elio?” Elio didn’t feel like responding in words, so he just shrugged and kept walking. Then, Elio braced himself for what was to come. 

When he walked into his room again, Marzia practically tackled him demanding he speak. “Watch it! I almost dropped your espresso.” Marzia rolled her eyes. She seemed to be able to see right through him recently even more, and Elio was not sure how he felt about that. 

“Like you would be mad about having to go back into the kitchen to get a new cup of coffee.” Marzia saw that she had reached one of Elio’s limits, and backed off. She had information that she wanted and knew that she could only push him so far and still get it. “So, tell me absolutely everything. Wait-” Marzia brought her cup up to her mouth and took a dramatic sip. “Okay, go.” 

“Nothing happened, M. I’m telling you.” 

Marzia slammed her coffee down so hard that some spilled over the edge. “Bullshit nothing happened!” 

Elio rolled his eyes, he figured he would tell her, but she might be disappointed, or even worse, read more into it than what was there. “We kissed. And nothing else happened.” 

“Did he sleep in the bed?” 

Elio just nodded, he knew where this line of questioning was going. “Fuck me.” 

“I know, M., okay? It’s just different.” 

“You have never in our how many years of knowing each other have let me sleep in the same bed as you and now you’re letting Oliver do that?” 

“Because if you sleep in my bed then bad things happen, you know that. Or are you forgetting your relationship that was on thin fucking ice?” Elio put his hand to his mouth. He knew he had gone too far. He rubbed his face, feeling where a beard would be and had no idea what to say. “Marzia-”

“Save it. I’ll see you in class.” Marzia walked out. Shit. 

Now, Elio had two things to worry about. One being the fact that Marzia probably wanted to cut his head off and the other being the conversation he had to have with Oliver in his office after class. He didn’t know which one he was most nervous for, but he knew that he would have really liked to hear what Marzia thought about the whole thing. He was telling himself that he didn’t care, that this was something between him and Oliver only, but that wasn’t true. Nothing about his life was something that he experienced alone. All aspects of his life he experienced through the eyes of his family, and for the most part, Marzia. They were his third eye, his people that he could lean on. There was nothing to do except get ready for class. HE put on an outfit without really looking at it. He took a sip of coffee, but it had gone cold. Things had changed abruptly ever since he had fucked up with Marzia. He felt mechanic. This was one of those times where he didn’t know if he was going to be able to make this up to her. 

When he got to class, he saw that Marzia was already there. She was sitting in her usual seat, which was comforting, but Elio knew it was more of a social expectations thing rather than her not being mad anymore. He sat down and immediately felt the chilly mood from her. Nothing had changed between them since he royally fucked up and he was going to have to do a lot of work to even try to fix it. 

“Marzia.” Marzia didn’t look at him. He understood that he did, but he needed her to know how sorry he was. He wasn’t smart, she was smart. She was his best friend in this foreign country and he felt like he had lost his only life raft. “Marzia.” Oliver had started taking role, so he gave up. It felt like shit to give up, but he started to worry about what was going to happen after class since now class was starting, the countdown had begun. Luckily, since it was class, Marzia’s cold shoulder was not exactly something that he could fix, but he was constantly sending her notes, trying to get her to respond. In response, after the fifth note, she crumpled them all up, threw them at Elio and walked out of class. The noise made everyone in class look back and Elio had never been more mortified in his life. Then, Oliver spoke. 

“Elio, see me after class.” Shit. 

The class went by pretty quickly after that. Elio packed up his stuff as quickly as possible and went straight to Oliver’s office. He was really hoping that it would be a sanctuary away from Marzia, but he didn’t know how this talk would go at all. He felt like everything was back to the beginning before he even met Oliver, and he was trying to figure out what his relationship with Marzia was. That was a hard time for them. He got to the office before Oliver did, and he sat down on the chair right outside the door, because it was locked. He heard someone approaching, but he didn’t look up, he didn’t want to get his hopes up that it was Oliver. It couldn’t be already. 

He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Oliver. The hand was gone quickly, and Oliver came into his vision and unlocked his door. He gestured for Elio to come in. Elio didn’t know if he should sit down or not, this felt like a situation he was a stranger to. 

Oliver ran a hand through his hair. He looked concerned like he could break Elio with one wrong move. “Sorry that took me so long, I told everyone that my office hours were canceled today. I’m all yours.” That was single-handedly the nicest thing that he could have said at that moment. Elio didn’t expect that at all. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he certainly did not expect that. He threw himself into Oliver’s arms, who accepted him without thought. Oliver started to pull away, and Elio leaned up to kiss him. Oliver kissed him back for a moment, and then pulled away. 

“We have things to talk about, Elio.” Elio nodded, looking more serious, solemn almost, but not quite. “Hey, hey, not all bad, okay? This is all just, a lot, you know?” Oliver took a deep breath. “Let’s start with the most recent thing: what the hell happened with you and Marzia? Just last week I could have sworn that you guys were dating or something along those lines and now you’re fighting?” 

“I fucked up, Oliver.” Oliver took them both towards the two armchairs in his office. They both sat down and Oliver looked at him patiently. It was clear that he was going to force Elio to talk. Elio took a deep breath because it would be easier to get this all out in one breath. “She thought I was keeping something from her about us and when I told her that I wasn’t she got mad?” Elio didn’t know how much he was going to hate this. He hated this. “And I sort of implied directly that her long-distance relationship was not in a good place.”

Oliver put his head in his hands. “Wow. We are both going to have to work on being more eloquent and careful, I think.” Oliver looked around the room as if the answer was maybe written on the wall. “How bad is it?” 

“You saw her storm out, right? That bad.” 

“If any of this is my fault, I am so sorry.” 

Elio put his hand on Oliver’s. “No, it’s not your fault. I just never really let Marzia sleep in my bed even though we normally sleep in the same room? And she didn’t understand why I was letting you do it even though we hadn’t known each other for that long.” 

“Why did you?”

Elio hated this question because he had an answer so ready. “Because I like you, Oliver.” Oliver scoffed and didn’t look convinced at all. “I like you a lot, Oliver. Probably too much, judging by your reaction.” 

“Is it going to be really bad at home?” 

“Probably, yeah.” 

“Stay at my house tonight.” 

“Oliver”

“I’m serious. Get stuff and come over whenever. You know where I live, after all.” 

Elio bit his lip to hide how big he was smiling. “Okay, yeah. I’ll see you tonight.” He stood up and Oliver did, too. Without thinking, he leaned in for a kiss, he figured that this meant that would be okay. “Is this okay?” 

Oliver just leaned in and kissed him. “I’ll see you tonight, dork.”


	9. 9

Elio didn’t know if Marzia would be home. That had never really been a problem before. The only time it had been in the past was that he had hoped she was home because, well, because they were best friends. Now, walking home from Oliver’s office, he didn’t know what to expect. He had a feeling that her girlfriend would know about the fight they had, which would give her another reason to not like him. She already didn’t like him very much because of his past with Marzia, which he could understand, but he would never pursue her when she was in a relationship, and Marzia knew that. Or at least, she had a good feeling about it. 

When Elio walked into the door, he didn’t make any announcement of his presence. Sometimes, when he got home, he would yell a greeting to see who else was in the house. It was different than in the villa because there, there was always someone home. It felt nice. At the house here, there were times when Elio was home alone, and he didn’t like that at all. When that happened, he would go outside on the porch and read or just stare into space until someone came home to hang out with him or simply exist in the same house as him. Sometimes, he didn’t feel real until there was someone else living in the same area as he was. 

He heard faint French in Marzia’s room and knew that she was probably talking to her girlfriend. He didn’t want to interrupt, so he started packing an overnight bag, knowing that she probably heard him go into his room since it was literally next door. Elio didn’t know how to start talking to Marzia again. He felt like he was a kid all over again, just trying to get up the nerve to be friends with her. Becoming friends, then more, and then just friends again with Marzia, for all intents and purposes was one of the scariest things that Elio had ever done in his life. 

Elio was haphazardly putting things into a bag, nervously packing way more than he needed to when Marzia came into his room. She plopped down on the bed and looked up at Elio, waiting for something. Elio didn’t know how to go about what he had to say with any grace, so he simply blurted out whatever he could that he thought might fix the situation. 

“Marzia listen, I am so sorry for what I said. You know that none of it was true, you are my best friend and it kills me that I hurt you at all, in any way.” Elio felt like he should keep going, he really did feel bad. There was nothing worse than losing your one ally in a foreign country. Sure, he had his parents, but that was nothing like what he and Marzia had. Elio didn’t think that anyone other than them really understood the intricacies of their dynamic. Marzia was looking at him like she was about to start laughing. “Is there any world where you ever forgive me for being such an asshole?” 

Marzia looked like she was considering this for a while. For too long for Elio’s comfort, but he let her sit with the possibilities. “Of course, you dolt. I was always going to forgive you, I just needed you to apologize.” Marzia looked around like she was going to tell Elio a secret. “Besides, I don’t know if you’ve picked up on this or not, but my English is not exactly where it needs to be to survive this country without you.” 

Elio laughed at that. He full bellied laughed for the first time in a while and it felt so freeing. He was worried for a second because Marzia wasn’t laughing, but she started laughing too before she got serious. She sat up on the bed and assumed a posture that was all business and straightened what Elio could only assume were imaginary glasses on her face. 

“Elio.”

Elio adopted the same tone and responded. “Marzia.” 

“Where do you think you’re going with that bag you’re packing?” 

“If I told you that it wasn’t any of your business would you let it go?” 

Marzia just laughed. Elio would have to be dreaming for that to be the reality. Marzia started looking through what he had packed in a rush. “Why do you have three pairs of shirts and ten pairs of underwear? And three pairs of shoes? Where are you going? And more importantly, how long are you going to be there? We have school, you know, you can’t just wander off into the unknown until June.” 

Elio didn’t want to be embarrassed, but it was too late. He quietly said, “one night.” 

“What? I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. I must be losing my mind because I could have sworn that you said you were only going to be gone for one night and that math just does not add up.” Marzia shifted even closer to Elio like she was interrogating him. “Elio, are you running away and joining the circus? Be honest.” Marzia loved saying ‘be honest’ after a ridiculous sentence. She thought it was funny. Elio didn’t know where she got it from but it was safe to say that he hated it. 

“I hate you so much.” 

“You love me. Besides, what are you going to tell your parents about not sleeping here tonight?” Elio gave her a look as if she couldn’t have possibly known where he was going with so many backup outfits. “As if I don’t know that you’re going to Oliver’s tonight. It’s insulting how dumb you think I am, Ellie-Belly.” Marzia loved calling him that, of course, he had restricted this nickname to the confines of their own home, because he didn’t trust it not to spread around school. He didn’t care as much now, but the rule was upheld. 

“I don’t need you to cover for me, M. I am a grown ass adult and I can just say that I’m staying over at a friend’s house to work on a school assignment. Just because my father works at the school doesn’t mean that he knows everything that’s going on.”

“Fine. But don’t ever say that I don’t do anything for you.” Elio started walking out the door with his heavier than necessary duffel. Marzia yelled at him to come back. Elio turned around on the spot and walked back into his room.

“Yes, your majesty?” 

“Did you remember condoms?” Elio took a deep breath and realizing that he had enough pairs of shoes to sacrifice one of them, he threw his worst pair at her and walked out without saying anything. “Safety first, you know?” Elio threw Marzia a middle finger and kept walking. 

It turned out that his mother overheard Marzia yelling, and how couldn’t she, the house was not even close to the size of the villa they stayed in and you could hear anything in that house. “Where are you going, Ellie?” 

Elio swallowed and prepared his lie. But, he didn’t have to, because his father walked in. “Ah, already going off to Oliver’s to work on homework I see?” Elio choked. His father seemed to understand what that meant, and explained. “I saw him on campus today and he told me that he was going to help you with some of your classwork and we shouldn’t expect you for dinner.” His father kissed him on the forehead and sent him off with a smile. Elio was going to be having a talk with Oliver about this, for sure. He didn’t know how to take that, though, so he decided to think about it on the car ride over to Oliver’s place. 

As he was driving, he belatedly realized that he didn’t know if Oliver would be home yet or not, and he didn’t want to look like a total idiot arriving before him. Luckily, he had brought his book bag and could read in the car if Oliver wasn’t there yet. As Elio pulled up, he saw that the lights were off in his windows, and there was no sign that he was there yet. So, Elio pulled over on the side of the road and got his book out of his bag. He was almost grateful for this time alone, it had seemed like he was spending all of his time surrounded by people, and while he loved that, it was a little exhausting. He was fully immersed in his reading when a knock on his window startled him. Elio jumped and he could hear a laugh that he would recognize anywhere as Oliver’s. 

When Elio opened the door, Oliver was still laughing. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. You must be really into that book if you didn’t hear me walk up.” 

Elio thought about whether or not he was going to try to play off his fear as something else, but he figured that Oliver would see right through him. There was no denying that he was a little jumpy, especially considering how nervous he was to be spending the night with Oliver. The fact that it was planned somehow made it more real, more intimidating. He almost felt like a lady of the night as his father would say, but he was hoping that this was not the situation. He didn’t know what to do, so he grabbed his bag from the passenger seat, and even though Oliver offered to take it, he held on. He didn’t need Oliver to know that he packed his entire life for one night. 

“Come on, let’s go inside.” Elio wondered absently if the stuff that his ex-girlfriend had in boxes would still be in the entrance. He didn’t know if he was wondering this for his own safety, or because he wanted to know how out of the picture she actually was. Oliver seemed to read his mind. “Don’t worry, her stuff is gone, you probably don’t have anything to trip on, unless you try really hard.” Oliver seemed to be embedding more meaning into what he was saying, his smile wasn’t quite reaching his eyes. Seeing this, Elio was determined to change that. He was determined to make Oliver happy. He had wanted that for a while, but it had taken him some time for him to realize that this was exactly what he wanted. 

Elio didn’t normally spend a lot of time thinking about other people’s happiness when it really came down to it. He wanted people to be happy when he cared about them, but he didn’t spend a lot of time wanting to be the reason that they were happy. With Oliver, it was different. With Oliver, instead of worrying that he wasn’t going to be happy most of the time, he was worried any time that Oliver didn’t look like he was having the time of his life. He realized that he wasn’t going to be able to survive this evening without alcohol, and he knew they were going to ‘chat’ so he was going to suggest a wine during that. Shit. He should have brought wine with him and that would have been a nice gesture. It was too late for that now, though, because he was following Oliver through the hallway and Oliver took him into his room and pointed at the floor by the bed. 

“You can put your bag down there. You don’t have to sleep in here with me, it’s just there isn’t much room anywhere else.” Oliver looked nervous. That made Elio feel a lot better. Well, it made Elio feel a little better because he didn’t know why Oliver was nervous. He knew he was nervous because he liked Oliver so much. He was concerned that maybe Oliver was nervous because he had to let Elio down nicely. They hadn’t talked yet since that kiss, and even though it was only the next day, it felt like a century had passed. 

Oliver went over to the couch in the living room and gestured for Elio to follow him. Once Elio got there, Oliver didn’t sit down, so Elio didn’t either. “I was thinking we could order food in? I am nowhere near as good a cook as your mother and I didn’t want to offend you with my horrible skills so would that be okay?” 

“Of course. I can pay for it since you’re letting me stay at your place.” Elio caught Oliver’s smile waver. Elio, of course, knew that Oliver was on a rather tight budget, but that wasn’t the reason he had instinctively offered to pay for the meal. His father had even slipped a $10 into his pocket on his way out the door as if to suggest he do that. 

“Elio, don’t. You’re a guest, anyway. And with all your family is already doing and with summer coming up if anything, I owe you.” Oliver didn’t say this in a bad way, necessarily, but he didn’t seem to like the implication of owing anyone anything. 

“You don’t owe me or my family anything, you know. I-, well, we love having you around.” 

Oliver seemed to lighten up at this. He walked into the kitchen, but Elio could still see him from the living room. Oliver called to him louder than he needed to, but Elio appreciated the sentiment. He was probably reading too much into it, but it felt like Oliver was being loud not to be heard, but to communicate to Elio that he was further away from him that he wanted to be. “Want some wine while we wait for the pizza?” 

Elio was thankful that libations were on the menu. He didn’t know if he could do any of this sober. It was shocking that he was able to come to the apartment without any substances to help him out. “Sure. That sounds great, really, thank you.” 

Oliver brought two glasses out to the coffee table and the whole bottle of wine. Elio was thankful that Oliver had judged their drinking capacity to be this high. Oliver then walked off and went to what Elio assumed, order the pizza. Elio poured himself a glass of wine, and then without thinking, poured a glass for Oliver as well. He was starting to sip at it and look around on the couch when Oliver came back in. “I ordered the pizza. It will be here in thirty.” He looked down at the glasses, seeming to light up when he saw that Elio had filled his. “What a gentleman we are, filling my glass too? I’m charmed.” Elio didn’t blush. He didn’t. If anyone were to say anything different, they were lying. 

Elio and Oliver drank a glass in relative silence. It was fast going, which Elio decided not to feel bad about, because this was college, damn it, and he was going to live it up. These were supposed to be the best years of his life. 

Oliver turned to be fully facing him and the tone of the room got serious. “We should talk.” Elio made a face that could only be described as a baby trying something sour for the first time. Disgusted, but interested. “It’s not going to be terrible, come on, don’t make that face.” 

Elio had a rebuttal ready. “No one ever says anything good after ‘we should talk’. That’s like the first rule of any conversation, ever. So sorry that I’m not jazzed for you to let me down easy or whatever.” Elio didn’t want to look at him when he responded to this, so he looked down to pour himself another glass of wine. Before he had time to think if he should pour one for Oliver as well, he did it. 

Oliver got closer to him and Elio sucked down his wine. “Elio.” Elio was getting intimate with his wine glass instead of looking at Oliver, and it was working really well for one of them. “Elio, look at me. I don’t want to let you down easy, but we have to talk about what you want. What we both want.” 

Elio looked up at Oliver, feeling very warm from the proximity and the two glasses of wine he basically shot-gunned. Feeling brave, he pulled Oliver’s face close to him and before leaning in all the way, he whispered, “I want you, Oliver. I want this. I want to be with you, however much you let me.” Before Elio could regret what he had said, if it was too much, Oliver closed the distance and kissed him. They both had red wine stained lips and tasted of wine and it was beautiful and everything he could hope for. Elio wanted to test the waters, and increased the kiss. Oliver wasn’t pulling away. Well, he didn’t pull away until someone rang the door buzzer. Elio groaned, but Oliver got up and got the pizza, thanking the delivery driver with less kindness than he would have normally given him because they were in the middle of something. 

Elio had used this time to finish a third glass of wine, and he was in business. As soon as Oliver put the pizza down on the table, Elio ran over to him and leaped into his arms, hoping and praying that Oliver would catch him. “Woah-” Oliver didn’t have a chance to finish his thought, because Elio decided that they were at war and Elio would be damned if he didn’t win. Oliver laughed. Elio hoped that this wasn’t child’s play to him, but a part of him didn’t care. 

Elio whispered into Oliver’s ear, feeling confident, “I don’t care if you don’t like me back. I just need you to fuck me and get this over with. If you never want to see me again after this, so be it. I just need you.” 

Oliver looked offended. “I do like you Elio, I am just scared to rush things too fast. I don’t want to ruin you. There are so many more people that are better than me that you deserve.” 

Elio hated this, he really did. He leaned in and kissed Oliver again to shut him up. “You won’t ruin me. Do I have to beg? Don’t make me beg.” Oliver seemed to be interested in that, but Elio didn’t have time to play these games. He hoped that maybe it would come up later but he didn’t have time to hope. Oliver made a noise that Elio optimistically called a growl in his head and walked with Elio still in his arms to the bedroom, laying Elio down. 

Elio pulled the collar of his shirt into his mouth, waiting for what was going to happen. He was too buzzed to be nervous, but he didn’t want to be the worst lay of Oliver’s life. He wasn’t exactly aiming for top ten, but he would have liked to not be the bottom percentile, either. Oliver was standing above him and Elio was getting increasingly angry that Oliver was wearing so many damn clothes. He tugged at Oliver’s shirt and he got the message, taking his shirt off and his pants, until he was down to just his underwear. Elio could not have been more excited about this. He tried to be cool, be calm. He had never been with a man in this way, but he wanted Oliver so badly that he figured that it would be amazing. 

Oliver looked at him seriously. “Elio. Have you done this before?” Oliver made a vague gesture with his arms. “Like with a guy?” 

Elio shook his head. It looked for a second like Oliver was going to pick up his clothes and high-tail it out of there. “You’re not going to break me, Oliver. I want this. I think you want this, too.” 

Oliver came down to lie on top of Elio, making sure not to crush him. “Can I kiss you?” Elio rolled his eyes but leaned in for a kiss anyway. Oliver’s hands found his shirt and took it off. He didn’t have time to think about how small he looked compared to Oliver, all he could think about was how much he wanted, he needed to be with Oliver like this. Oliver shimmied Elio out of his pants and underwear and then his own. They were both naked. Elio almost laughed thinking about what his former self would have thought if he knew that he would end up fucking the TA he hated with his core. Oliver looked up at Elio, and Elio was almost embarrassed that he was already hard from kissing, but it seemed like Oliver was too. Oliver put a cautious hand on Elio and Elio gripped it, forcing Oliver to stop being weak with him. He could handle it. He was going to handle it. Oliver started rubbing up and down, and Elio let out a soft moan. 

Oliver’s hand moved down lower and Elio steeled himself and prepared for what was to come. “We don’t have to do this, E. We can do other things.” 

Elio sat up, drunk with rage and horniness. “Please.” Oliver seemed to understand, and slowly, after finding the lube, started to open Elio up. Elio was losing his mind at how slowly Oliver was going, but he also appreciated it, because he didn’t know if Oliver was like this with other people. He was not going to think about that right now. “Oliver, if you don’t put your dick in me right now, I am going to cum.” Oliver took that seriously, and before Elio knew it, Oliver was fucking him. It hurt and Elio did his best not to make a face, but it didn’t work. Oliver was about to look like he regretted everything, but Elio wouldn’t let that happen. “Fuck me. Move, Oliver.” 

With that, Oliver started moving in earnest, and Elio stopped trying to pretend that he wasn’t having the best sex of his life and moaned at full volume. This seemed to be doing things to Oliver too, who reached a hand down and started stroking Elio at the rhythm of his thrusts. Elio came first. He wanted to be embarrassed, but he didn’t have the energy. Oliver came soon after and pulled out. It hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt. It was a hurt that Elio wore like a badge of honor. 

“Thank you.” Elio didn’t expect to say that, but it felt right. It also felt dirty, like he was thanking someone he paid for sex. That got him worried. “Are you going to stop wanting to be around me because of this?” Elio hated how vulnerable he was being, but he had already been as vulnerable as possible so it didn’t matter. 

Oliver looked at him like that was the dumbest question in the whole world. “Don’t be ridiculous. Let’s clean up and then eat that pizza. I’m starving.” Elio laughed. Then he realized. He was falling in love with Oliver. Oliver, who finally had sex with him and then could only think about how hungry he was after. It was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please be gentle, this is my first time trying to write something explicit and it's probably garbage. back to your normally scheduled angst soon


	10. 10

Oliver got to the table with the pizza and the wine before Elio did. Elio was in a post-sex haze and he was in no hurry to snap himself out of it. Laying down in the bed, he was thinking about what they had just done. He wanted to feel bad, he wanted to feel guilty, but for some reason, he couldn’t. He had a time when he used to feel guilty and like he didn’t exist after having sex with people, but that wasn’t the case. He felt like this was completing something that he didn’t know needed to be completed. He heard Oliver talking in what must have been to him and he tried to make himself listen. 

“There’s like none left! How did you even do this so fast?” Oliver paused when Elio poked his head in the room, only wearing his boxers. “Never mind. Don’t finish it while I’m heating up this pizza or you’ll have hell to pay.” 

Elio smiled at himself and looked down at his toes, that seemed to wiggle at him in celebration. Elio shook his head. That was definitely a side effect of the wine more than anything else. It did seem like everything was coming together, though. He was going to sleep over here, and it was going to be beautiful. He was going to be full of pizza, wine, and surrounded by Oliver. He already felt that Oliver was all over him, he was in his veins, he was Elio’s entire mind. When he thought about this, and how ridiculous it was, it was hard for him to think of a time when that wasn’t the case. He had always thought about Oliver more than he necessarily should, but it took him a long time to figure out why. 

Oliver came back, and he figured that he would start with the question that was on his mind because it was the one that worried him the most. “Oliver?” Oliver looked up, after putting down the pizza and two plates. “Do you hate me?” After thinking about it for a second, he followed up with a statement that he was worried would lead Oliver in the wrong direction. “You should hate me.” 

Oliver sat down next to Elio and grabbed pizza for both of them. He put a slice each on the plates, thought for a second and then added a second one. “Why would I hate you? It was you that hated me.” 

“You clearly hated me. Remember when you told me I was failing class just to fuck with me?” Elio rolled his eyes at the memory. It felt like it had been years before then, but it could have also been just yesterday. He couldn’t believe that he ever confused his feelings for Oliver with hate, when really if anything, it was always the opposite. 

“That was a test. I wanted to understand you.” Oliver let that sentence slip off his tongue like it was nothing. He was saying things that cleared everything up for Elio and he was really just rushing to get his next bite of pizza. It was unbelievable. 

“A test?”

“A test.” 

“How did I do, Professor?” Elio shook his head and laughed. He was going to try to work with roleplay, but it was too weird. Oliver laughed right along with him. 

“Elio, you know that it was you that hated me, and not the other way around. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you were jealous, but I have no idea why you would be.” 

Elio thought about this for a moment. Maybe he was jealous. Not only was every person in his class fawning over Oliver, but he was also getting the attention of Elio’s father that never seemed to make it down to little old Elio. He maybe thought that he was never worth Oliver’s attention. No. That couldn’t be it. He knew he was worth attention. He wasn’t an only child for no reason. “I just can’t believe that you give me the time of day.” Elio didn’t think that he was going to say this, but it was something he had been thinking about, and since he was still feeling the effects of the wine, he went for it. “Are you sure you aren’t doing this because of the trip to Italy?” 

“Elio, I think I would be falling in love with you, trip to Italy or not.” And then, without taking a breath, “another slice?”

“Falling in love with me?” 

Oliver shrugged around a bite of pizza. “Well, yeah. You’re kind of hard to get rid of, you know.” 

Elio crossed his arms in front of him, not realizing how comical he was being. He threw them down in defiance. “Am not.” Elio shook his head. This was not the important thing. “Oh god, Marzia is going to be so annoying about this.” 

Oliver laughed. “What could that possibly mean?” 

Elio hit himself on the forehead. “She has been predicting this ever since I started complain- I mean talking about you. She told me that I liked you and I never believed her.” Oliver gave him a raised eyebrow in response. Elio rolled his eyes. “Apparently, I’m ‘easy to read’ and ‘transparent with my feelings’ according to Marzia, who has taken exactly one psychology class.” 

“I should send her an edible arrangement to thank her.” Oliver nodded to himself, pleased with his new decision. 

“An edible arrangement? For what?” Elio was standing up and tugged at Oliver’s wrist to do the same. He was full of pizza and wine and wanted to start doing the sleeping part of this sleepover they were going to be doing. 

Oliver followed, explaining himself. “Without her, would you ever have realized that you didn’t hate me?” Oliver paused, allowing Elio to answer, but Elio didn’t have an answer. “That’s what I thought. Without her, ‘mingling’ you would have never acted the way that you did, or gotten your head out of your ass.” Elio stood in the doorway, with his arms crossed, regretting how often he found himself in that position. “Am I wrong?” 

“If you’re going to be like that, I’m going to go home.” Elio made the move to walk out and was immediately caught by Oliver’s arms. God, did he have huge and perfect arms. Elio wanted to be in those arms for as often as he could be if he was being honest with himself. That was not information that Oliver needed to know. Or, it wasn’t information that he needed to know right now. 

“You are not going anywhere. You’re drunk. If you got into an accident your father would kill me.” Elio threw weak punches at Oliver’s back. “Not to mention, I would be pretty sad about it, too. It might even keep me up for a night.” Elio’s barrage of punches was coming stronger, now. “Kidding, kidding. I would be devastated. I would build a shrine to you. I would never sleep again. I would spend the rest of my miserable life trying to find someone just like you and fail.” Elio went limp, pretending to be dead. Oliver caught on, picking Elio up and carrying him to the bed. “Oh god, why. The horror! I can’t believe it!” Oliver dropped Elio on the bed. Elio made grabby hands for Oliver to join him. “Tsk, tsk, even in death, you are so needy.” 

They negotiated to Oliver spooning Elio, and Elio slept soundly as he ever had. It was frankly unbelievable that he was sharing a bed with Oliver and not tossing and turning, but the way that he fit in with Oliver and they just connected made all of his worries go away. 

He woke up to the smell of coffee and a cold bed. He didn’t connect the two and got upset. Oliver left and didn’t even say bye to him. Was he so embarrassed to be seen with Elio that he didn’t want to risk them coming to school at the same time? Elio should have prepared himself for this better. He didn’t realize that he didn’t prepare for anything other than bliss, and that was his fatal flaw. To top it all off, this was the first time Elio had allowed himself to think of anything but the worst-case scenario. All he could think about was that he had to pee. He was going to deal with that first before he let the weight of his crushing sadness hit. He had priorities, ok? 

On his way to the bathroom, he saw what he never thought he would see. Oliver, dancing around his kitchen, setting out breakfast for two. For two! Elio put his face in his shirt, unable to understand how big his grin was getting, just knowing that he was going to be interrogated when he got to school. There was no way he was going to be able to hide this from Marzia. Not that he wanted to, it was just nice to have something that was only theirs, for at least this morning. 

Oliver was dancing around the kitchen, happy that he was making breakfast for two. It had been a long time since he cared enough about the other person to do this. The last time was with-. It had been a long time. That was all he wanted to think about. Elio had gotten up, he had heard him walking around. That was good, he wanted time for them to eat and talk about what facing school would mean. He should have considered this earlier, but there was a haze to last night, a haze that didn’t make anything they had experienced feel like it was a part of the same world. It felt real, but it didn’t feel like it would make contact with their outside lives. 

Elio walked into the kitchen and startled Oliver. “Ah, you walk like a mouse! Warn a guy!” Elio responded to this by wrapping his arms around Oliver, taking in all the love and beautiful morning-ness of Oliver while he could. 

They ate breakfast in relative silence, but it was full of glances, happy and smiling. Oliver didn’t bring up what he was worried about, because Elio offered first, “I’ll go so that it doesn’t seem weird if we get there at the same time. I like to get there early, anyways.” A lie. Oliver didn’t have to know that, but it seemed to work for Oliver, who noticeably relaxed. 

“Ok, I’ll see you in class, then.” Elio collected his bag and then paused. Was he supposed to kiss Oliver when he left? Was he supposed to sneak out the back like a walk of shame? There were no rules for this. He walked out and Oliver was at the door. 

“See you.” Oliver kissed him. Oliver gave him a goodbye kiss. It was unbelievable. Elio walked to his car, drove to school and walked into the class with a smile that didn’t leave his face. 

Walking in, he came face to face with Marzia. “Good morning, Marzia.” 

Marzia was not having this. She put on a grimace, what Elio called her ‘bullshit detector’ face, the one that got everything out of Elio, even when he was sworn to secrecy by anyone else. She was the exception of that rule, every time. This was one of the first times that he hated this. 

“Spill.”


	11. 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> D-r-a-m-a!

“Spill.” It was one word, but with one word, Marzia cut through what Elio thought was quite a good façade. Well, all things considered, it was an okay façade. He wasn’t really trying to mask anything if he was being honest with himself. He was smiling outwardly and that was something he almost never did. 

“Can we talk about this after class?” 

“You mean after you spend the whole hour staring at Hot Professor thinking about what his ass looks like?” Marzia crossed her arms. “I can’t believe you’re living in a porn and I don’t even get a cameo.

“Marzia, please, if anything, you are the only cameo. You can be student #2 or the pizza delivery girl. Also, he’s not the professor, he’s a TA.” Elio had decided to accept Marzia’s diagnosis of his life having turned into a scramble of porn tropes because it got Marzia a little of his back and it was pretty funny. 

 

There was a noise at the front and it was Oliver walking in. He looked upset. Elio wondered if anyone else could tell that he didn’t look as happy as he normally did. 

 

“Jesus, Elio, what did you do to him?” Well, that answered that question. That being said, Marzia was very good at reading people. Elio hoped that it wasn’t so transparent to everyone else. 

“Shut up Marzia. I didn’t do anything.” Elio crossed his arms and then quickly uncrossed them. He knew he was acting like he was five but he didn’t want to also look like he was. He was going to have to figure out what was wrong with Oliver. He was worried though because he didn’t know if he was close enough with him to gain any kind of trust. It seemed like only time would tell. 

The lecture went smoothly because it was Oliver and his father teaching one of Oliver’s favorite subjects. Elio loved the way Oliver talked when he really cared about something. In the back of his mind, he considered if Oliver would ever talk about him in that way, but quickly shooed the thought away. It was too early in whatever this was for him to be thinking that crazy about Oliver, even though he was certainly beginning to feel that way. Who was he kidding? He had started to feel that way from day one, it wasn’t even worth denying. 

When people were clearing out, he looked at Marzia, hoping to get a pass to talk to Oliver first, and then tell Marzia everything that was going on. Knowing her, she would want to know what happened with Oliver in the time between the morning and class, so she just nodded at him. “Go talk to your boy and then you better come back and tell me everything.” Elio nodded, trying not to look as nervous as he was, but Marzia could tell. “He really likes you, okay? You’re gonna be okay.” 

Elio rushed out in order to catch him in his office. He didn’t have office hours today, so he was worried that Oliver would try to slip out before anyone could talk to him. Especially since he seemed to be so off this morning. The door was closed, but the light was on and streaming under the door so that was a good sign. Elio knocked. He took a deep breath and knocked again because he could tell that he didn’t do it loud enough the first time. He heard Oliver sigh behind the door followed by a muffled “come in if you must.” 

Elio opened the door and was pleased to see Oliver’s face relax for a moment before going back to what it had been all day. “Hi.” 

“Shut the door, we should probably talk.” Oliver walked around his desk and sat on the edge of it. Elio shut the door and went to sit down in the armchair directly in front of Oliver. Oliver took a deep breath and looked around the room as if he was looking for anyone else to start the conversation but him. 

“What happened?” Elio was scared to ask, but there was too much time waiting and he didn’t want to think about the worst-case scenario without just finding out what was wrong. 

“I was paid a visit this morning.” Oliver paused as if he was waiting for dramatic effect, but Elio figured he was just trying to get his words out. “By my “ex-fiancé”.” Oliver put quotation marks around this which would have made Elio laugh under normal circumstances, but these were decidedly not normal circumstances. 

“Oh?” Elio was not putting together what was going on, but he didn’t love where it was going. 

“She told me she came back to ‘give me a second chance’ and that we should work together because we were meant to be.” Elio realized that Oliver might have put the quotation marks around only ‘ex’ and not the fiancé part because maybe Oliver had figured out that he should get back with her. It made sense, that was the path that he should be following, not with Elio, some dumb kid that was the son of Oliver’s boss. Elio should have seen this coming. He was probably upset because Oliver didn’t want to let Elio down and then have to deal with him for the rest of the year and then the semester. 

Elio was starting to hyperventilate without even realizing it. Oliver moved to sit in the armchair next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Elio, I’m going to need you to breathe. I didn’t finish telling you what happened.” Elio slowed his breathing and Oliver kept talking. “She told me that when she was driving up, she saw someone leaving the house and that she was not pleased that I had gone back to that lifestyle.” 

“Ouch.” Elio didn’t like the way everyone in Oliver’s life seemed to be treating him. Then, something much larger was brought to his attention. “Did she, you know, see who I was?” Elio realized that if she somehow knew who he was that he would be screwed and Oliver would probably get fired and his dad would be in some hot water, considering he would probably get expelled. 

“No, she did comment on how young you looked, but she didn’t seem to have any idea who you are, which makes sense, because how would she know?” Elio took a sigh of relief. 

“What does that mean for us?” Elio didn’t want to know the answer, but he didn’t want to spend time wondering about it, either, which was probably worse than knowing. 

“Honestly? I don’t know. I would love to say that that conniving witch didn’t do anything to change my mind about us, but she really does know how to get into my head.” Oliver stood up and started pacing. “I’m scared, Elio. Scared to leave what my family wants behind for something that isn’t guaranteed. Does that make any sense? At the same time, I know it would be ridiculous to make you promise anything when we aren’t even official yet. Basically, I know that I’m fucking everything up and I don’t know what to do about it.” 

“What if I was a guarantee?” Elio threw himself under the moving bus because it was all he could think to do. It wasn’t that he was lying or anything, he just didn’t expect to be this open and honest about his feelings for Oliver so fast. “What if I wanted to be a guarantee? What if I wanted to be your boyfriend?” Elio saw that Oliver seemed to think he was talking in hypotheticals because he wasn’t reacting or even standing still, he was still pacing. “Because I want to. I want to be your boyfriend. I want to be whatever it is you need me to be.” 

“I can’t make you do that.” Oliver looked like he had just swallowed a bad pill. “I could never ask you to do that for me.” 

“What if I wanted to do it? What if it wasn’t for you at all? What if I just desperately wanted to be your boyfriend? Why wouldn’t I want to do things for you? Do you ever think about what you want?” 

That seemed to strike a chord for Oliver because he knocked over his very well-organized pen cup from his desk. “How dare you ask me what I want.” Oliver walked closer and closer to Elio, but he was standing his ground. Well, sitting his ground if he was going to be more accurate. 

Elio chuckled. How could Oliver not see what Elio saw? He was asking because he was falling in love with Oliver and all he wanted was to do whatever would make him happy. “Because if I don’t ask, who will? You’re not standing up for yourself and you deserve to have someone on your team.” 

Elio stood up and started making moves to leave Oliver’s office. Oliver pushed him back down on the seat. “You shouldn’t care about me. It just doesn’t make any sense.” Oliver’s face was right up to Elio’s. Elio took a moment to just look at Oliver, the most vulnerable he had ever seen him and thought about this for a moment. 

“I think I’ve cared about you since day one, Oliver.” Oliver blinked blindly at him. “And, if it matters, even though I don’t think it does at this point, I’m definitely and absolutely in love with you.” Elio looked down, but Oliver grabbed his chin and surged their lips together. 

“God, I’m a mess, and I’m so sorry that you’re getting involved in this garbage.” Oliver looked like he was going to say something, going to offer Elio a way out, an escape, but Elio was not ready to hear any of that. 

“Listen, I have to go, or Marzia is going to have a heart attack, but don’t even think about offering me a way out of this. I am here for you, baggage and all. That being said, you don’t have any baggage I’m not ready to help you carry.” Elio put his head in his hands. “God, that was so lame, wasn’t it? I’m sorry, I’m new at this.” He hugged Oliver and walked out. 

Luckily, the walk to the house wasn’t very long, because he had a feeling that this talk with Marzia was going to be exhausting enough to cover that. He didn’t have a chance to put the key in the door before Marzia was throwing it open. She took Elio’s hand and dragged him through the kitchen where he saw his parents having tea with some woman. She made eye contact with him and her smile turned sour. He didn’t know what to make of that, but he was going to have to ask his father who that was. 

Once they got to his room, Marzia hopped on his bed and crossed her legs. “Okay, tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out.” Elio raised an eyebrow. “Okay, fine you can leave some stuff out, I guess.” 

“We slept together.” Marzia punched him in the arm. “God, okay, I know. Also, he told me he was falling in love with me? And I said it back?” 

Marzia was bouncing up and down like she couldn’t believe what was happening. Then, there was a knock at the door. “Ellie, Marzia, come to meet our guest before she leaves!” 

Elio rolled his eyes and nodded at the door for Marzia to go out first. Marzia did, and when they got into the kitchen, his father spoke. “Marzia, Elio, this is June, Oliver’s fiancé.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this took so long to update! Thank you to everyone that has been sticking with it and leaving comments and being so amazing in general. I hope to be updating more regularly from now on since my schedule has gotten more normal. You guys rock my world. 
> 
> tumblr is @/lilchalamet


	12. 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> let's talk this out

“Marzia, Elio, this is June, Oliver’s fiancé.” 

Elio didn’t react. Because he couldn’t his stomach dropped and he felt weak. Like he could collapse. For one of the rare times, Elio was glad that Marzia could read his mind because, with one arm, she grabbed on his elbow and held on and with the other, she offered her hand to shake Jane’s. 

“It’s nice to meet you.” Marzia took a pause while Elio nodded numbly at her. Marzia looked like she was trying to think on her feet, and suddenly she started talking again, shocking everyone in the room. “Oh! Elio and I have so, so much work to do we had better head up to our rooms.” As Marzia was dragging Elio out of the room laughing in a way that was only fake to Elio and his parents. “You know us! Gotta keep those grades up!” Marzia’s last words were lost in the hallway, but that didn’t matter, because Elio’s parents were talking to Jane, taking all of her attention. 

Marzia broke into a sprint as soon as they got out of eyesight. Elio felt himself losing strength and as soon as they got to Marzia’s room, he beelined to the bed, throwing himself down with all the strength he had left. Into the pillow, he screamed. The pillow was starting to get wet, it took Elio an honest second to figure out why that was happening. Marzia rolled him over like he was on a frying pan. 

“Elio?” Marzia sounded like she was going to go harsh on him but when she saw that he was crying, it was a different story. “Ellie, honey, what’s going on? If you don’t talk to me I can’t help you.”

“She is here because she visited Oliver to try to change his mind about not marrying her. That’s why he was so upset in class today.” Elio wiped a lazy hand across his face as he sat up to face the largest bomb drop of the conversation. “And she saw me leaving his house this morning.” Elio didn’t have to look at Marzia’s face to know her reaction just by feeling the tone of the room change, but he did anyway, and her jaw was on the floor. “I don’t know if she recognized me or not but I kind of doubt that she just hated me on sight.” 

“Oh god, Elio. Wait, why did your parents say she was his fiancé if he called it off?” Marzia didn’t realize she had opened a wound that was festering ever since she had been brought back into the picture for the first time. 

Elio started sobbing in earnest, which prompted Marzia to wrap her arms around him. Normally, he hated how she could so easily make him feel small, but this time he felt small and it was nice to have her as a comfort. “I think she might have gone back. Maybe she finally convinced him that he was making a mistake.” Elio buried his face in Marzia’s shoulder to hide from the world. 

There was a gentle knock at the door before Marzia could say anything else. Elio knew that knock anywhere. It was the comforting ‘I want to check in on you but feel free to tell me not to come in’ from his father. Also, his mother, on principle, didn’t knock. She felt that as a family rule, closed doors were the antithesis to what she believed in, so no door was ever closed in her opinion. Marzia looked at Elio who nodded, to which Marzia said, “come in Mr. Perlman.” 

Elio’s dad came in shaking his head and laughing. “Marzia, you can call me Sammy, I’ve told you a million times, you’re our family.” Then, he turned his attention to Elio. He sat on the bed and made Elio the meat in a Sammy and Marzia hug sandwich. “Ellie, talk to me. What’s going on?” 

Elio tapped Marzia and pointed at his father in a way of saying ‘you tell him, I’m exhausted from all of this drama’ and Marzia sighed. “If I tell him you will not like the way in which I tell him, it’s better if you do it.” 

Elio huffed but understood. He tried to straighten up to preserve any dignity he had left and started to explain. “Oliver told me that he wasn’t engaged anymore. That he didn’t love her and he didn’t even know if he ever did. He was only engaged to her because of their parents and that his heart was never in it, which is why he made her move out. Apparently, she came back because his father sent him and told her to beg for another chance because he told her that Oliver had a weak spine.” 

Elio’s father was listening to all of this thoughtfully, without judgment, which is something that Elio always appreciated about him. “Elio, if it makes you feel better, Oliver told me the same thing. He warned me that she would be coming over and would be introducing herself as his fiancé but I shouldn’t take that seriously.” He laughed before continuing. “He also told me that he was pretty serious about dating my son, which came as absolutely no surprise to me, and of course I told him that he didn’t need my permission, it was all about what you want.” 

Elio flopped back on the bed, startling both Marzia and his dad. “God, I wish you could have told me that right when she walked in.” Elio’s father and Marzia looked at each other and started laughing. Then, Elio finally did, too. “This is going to be an interesting conversation to have with Oliver.” 

Elio’s father was starting to get up to leave and when he got to the door, he turned around. “Oliver is a good person, and I know you know that, but go easy on him. This can’t be easy if you don’t have a support system like you do, Ellie, even if you don’t think you do. Oliver is just starting to build his team.” 

Elio didn’t think of himself as a selfish person. Well, he certainly didn’t like to think of himself that way, because he supposed that no one did. But, at that moment, when his father reminded him of Oliver’s family and circumstances, he was almost knocked on his back. Oliver wasn’t even there and he had caught Elio only thinking about how the situation affected him and not Oliver at all. 

“Shit.” Elio looked at Marzia and his father, expecting to see faces of people that were angry at what an awful person he was, but instead, he saw understanding, something that he was not prepared for. It wasn’t even pity, which is something that he would have preferred. He knew how to respond to pity. He would have gotten angry and told them not to patronize him by making him feel small and like he had small problems. Instead, he was greeted with empathy. “I’m going to go to Oliver’s office and see if I can catch him.” On his way out the door, Elio turned around, “wish me luck.” 

“Luck.” Marzia had just learned that that was something people said when they wanted someone to succeed, and Elio was quite charmed by it as a concept. He thought that if he were greeted with some positive potential in the near future he would surely use ‘luck’. 

Elio started walking to Oliver’s office trying to think of what he could say to Oliver that would say everything that was swirling around in his head, but he didn’t know how he could do that without saying more than one thing at once. When he got to the office door, it was shut. He could see that the light was on and there was yelling inside. 

“Your mentor’s son? Even for you, that’s low, Oliver. I’m tired of pretending that you’re not cheating on me. You need to get it together.” 

“I’m not cheating on you and I never have.” Oliver was much quieter but firm. “I ended our engagement before anything happened with him. Who I date is none of your business.” 

“Of course it’s my business! People associate us together, Oliver! They’re going to know that you are cheating on me and that makes both of us look bad.” 

“I’m going to ask you to leave.” On that, Elio scurried as fast as he could behind a corner so that he could still hear but not be seen. As the door was opening, he could hear them better. “I have ended our engagement because I don’t want to be engaged to you anymore. I don’t care what you tell my father because his opinion is meaningless to me. I take care of myself and have for a while. I suggest you try that out.” With that, Oliver turned and shut the door, ending the conversation. 

Elio waited for her to leave, and luckily it didn’t take long. Then, after taking a deep breath, he walked to Oliver’s door and knocked. He heard grumbling inside the office, and then an “I’m sorry, my office hours are over.” 

“Oliver?” Oliver seemed to recognize Elio’s voice enough because he heard footsteps and then the door unlocking and opening. Elio saw that Oliver looked even worse than he had in class that morning and immediately went to hug him, pushing him into the room. “I’m so sorry for everything. For pushing you, for making your life hard with your family and June. I’m so selfish and I just hope that one day you can forgive me.” Elio took a deep breath and prepared to be seen out. “I’ll- I’ll go.”

“Wait. You didn’t do anything wrong. She’s- well- she’s not crazy but my father is, who is in her ear for sure. I just wish that you weren’t dragged into all of this. I never meant to make your life this hard. If you want to go, and not have me come to Italy I understand.” 

Elio laughed. “Are you kidding? You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I am in love with you, and you can’t even see it. I want to date you, all of you, not just the good parts. And, it would kill my dad if you didn’t come to Italy, so I don’t think I really even have a choice with that.” Elio reached up and wiped a tear off Oliver’s face that he saw threatening to dip into his lip. 

“I’m a guarantee, Oliver.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading and sticking with me, y'all mean the world to me the comments are amazing and keep me going like they're my life blood


	13. 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talkin' it out

“I’m a guarantee, Oliver.” 

Elio and Oliver both stopped dead in their tracks as if both were shocked by the sudden revelation that Elio admitted. Elio snapped out of it first and saw that Oliver was floundering. “I know everything is a lot right now, so you don’t have to say anything back. But, if you back out of going to Italy, I think my dad and Marzia will actually physically fight me when I get home.” 

Oliver laughed at this. Elio didn’t even mean to be funny, he was being incredibly serious. His whole family was charmed by Oliver. Even Marzia’s girlfriend, who only knew about him through Marzia over the phone was excited to meet him when he came to the villa. Elio didn’t want to freak him out too much, so he decided to withhold this information. 

Oliver stopped laughing for a moment. “Thank you.” Elio furrowed his brow. As far as he could tell, Oliver should be yelling at him, not thanking him. “I really needed to laugh. I guess I didn’t get that until now.” 

“Are you okay?” Elio remembered he hadn’t asked that yet, and he was not feeling great about how long he had been there without checking in. 

Oliver came towards him and wrapped Elio in his arms. In his ear, Oliver whispered, “I am now, Elio. I am now.” Elio squeezed him as tight as he could as if the mere act of letting go would make Oliver disappear. Oliver let this go on for a moment and then let go. 

Elio decided that this was the moment that he had to use to his advantage. This was the most romantic thing he had ever been involved in, and he didn’t want to fuck it up. Well, fuck it up more than he already had. Elio pulled farther away and looked down at the ground, making Oliver look even more nervous. Elio coughed and went for it. “Um, would you, um, maybe, I don’t know- this is stupid. Would you want to,” Elio rubbed his face, he was blowing it, that was for sure. He took another deep breath, and at an impressive speed, got out, “Would you want to go to dinner with me, like as a date, with me and you together?” 

Oliver chuckled at this. That son of a bitch chuckled at Elio’s pain. Then, it was Oliver’s turn to get serious. “Elio. I would love to, I want you to know that. I just don’t think it would be wise for us to go out together when you’re still my student and I am still dealing with the June situation.” The way Oliver said June situation was the same way presidents discussed their war rooms. Elio could respect that and everything he said, but it still stung. It turned out that Oliver wasn’t done. “So, I say we have a lovely dinner in, and we pencil an extraordinary dinner for Italy this summer.” This proposition seemed to make Oliver nervous, so he followed with a joke. “Rumor has it, they have good food there.” 

Elio smiled without his teeth. He was trying not to appear as excited as he was. It probably didn’t work as well as he planned, but that didn’t matter. “Sounds perfect.” 

Oliver looked around at his office, now messy by his standards, with the pen cup knocked over, and sighed. “All this stuff is just going to have to wait for me to come back and do it later.” Elio raised an eyebrow. He had never heard Oliver push off work to some other time. Oliver looked at his watch. “How about you and I order the greasiest food we can and watch the worst shows we can find on television? Can an intellectual like you manage to do that for a night?” 

Elio had never heard anything as amazing as that idea. “I don’t know, you tell me.” Elio smiled, this time with his teeth biting his bottom lip, he didn’t give a shit anymore how happy he looked, this was happy and he deserved to feel that way. Oliver nodded his head towards the door, and Elio walked out. 

They started walking to Oliver’s car, and it felt so incredibly comfortable, that it almost didn’t feel real. Once they got in the car, Elio turned to Oliver, and they drove out of the parking lot. “I’m going to have to call Marzia when we get to your house, just to let her know that I wasn’t murdered by your ex or anything like that.” 

Oliver looked over at him. “Sounds good. I wouldn’t put it past her, and that is a scary thought.” Right as Oliver said that, he saw that there was a familiar car in the parking lot of his building. He put his hand on Elio’s head and shoved him down. “Listen, this sounds crazy because she is, but she is here right now,” Elio responded with a muffled grunt. Oliver continued, “and, as much as I love that we are together now, I don’t need her to have any reason to set a fire in my house or anything else like that. I’m going to go inside, and figure out what’s going on, and then I’ll come out to get you.” Elio grunted an agreement, which was enough for Oliver, who took a big jacket and draped it over Elio’s lithe frame. 

Elio spent what felt like hours underneath the jacket. He couldn’t hear what was going on very well, the wool that lined the coat was acting as earmuffs. What he did hear didn’t sound good, and he worried briefly that he would never be let out of the car. Luckily Oliver had the sense to lower the windows and make sure Elio didn’t suffocate to death in the car. He heard stomping and tried to be as still as possible. Everything got very loud, and it was clear they were near her car, now. 

“Where is he, Oliver?” She was screaming. It didn’t seem like she knew Elio was around, but just that she wanted to know where he was. Oliver didn’t respond. “What, do you love him? That’s rich, Oliver, after everything I’ve done for you.” Elio heard a door open and close. Then, the engine started, and after the screeching of wheels and roaring of the engine, silence. Silence, except the long exhale that he assumed had to be Oliver. 

Despite this, Elio didn’t dare to move, still. He wasn’t going to move until Oliver came and told him he could. The last thing he wanted to do was risk Oliver’s happiness for the sake of him being more comfortable. That would never be worth it. He heard footsteps, and then the passenger side door opened. The jacket was lifted off of Elio, and he could see that it looked like Oliver had been crying. Elio didn’t prepare himself for that. He felt so dumb. He thought, stupidly, that because Oliver was happy with Elio that his pain would be over, that he wouldn’t have to deal with being sad anymore. Clearly, that was not the case. Elio hated himself for even thinking that. 

“Let’s go inside.” Oliver seemed defeated. Elio grabbed his backpack and followed Oliver. He desperately wanted to put his arm around him and hug him, but he figured he should save that for when they were inside and things felt safer. Once they were inside, Elio couldn’t stop himself, he vaulted into Oliver’s arms and stayed there until he felt he had hugged him for long enough. Feeling that this would never be a time reached, he stopped the hug anyway. Oliver was smiling down at him, almost manically. “She came here to tell me that my parents have officially cut me off. Not that I didn’t already know that, but now I know for sure.” He started pacing, with a crazed look in his eyes. “It’s like she thinks that could still have any hold over me when I have been taking care of myself for so long. What a crazy bitch. She thought that would change my mind. I told her I was in love with you, though and nothing she said would change my mind.” Elio caught Oliver by the arm and stopped him when he said that. 

“Oliver, you didn’t have to say that.” Elio was freaked out now. Oliver was saying things that might not be true in order to get June off his back, but this was not at all what he wanted to happen. He wanted Oliver to be happy and do what he wanted, not just say what Elio wanted to hear. 

Oliver looked down at Elio’s death grip on his arm, and Elio released it, looking embarrassed. “I know I didn’t. But it’s true, and I want everyone to know. Even her. She deserved to know, Elio. You’re not just some fling that I am having to spite my parents and her, you are the real deal to me.” Elio looked down at the floor, he never expected something so direct to come from Oliver, but he was not complaining. “God, I’m starving, let’s order food.” 

They ended up ordering Chinese food. Over noodles and the wine that Oliver had ‘laying around for a special occasion’, they talked. Elio was shocked that they talked so much like his parents did, shocked in the best way, because, at the end of the day, that was his barometer for love. He never expected to be reaching it so soon. 

“I love this, Oliver.” That is what Elio was feeling, his stomach full of Chinese food, his heart full of love. 

Oliver rolled closer to Elio on the couch and challenge him. “Oh? Us, you mean?” 

Elio rolled his eyes. This was the Oliver that he fell in love with, the one that was always keeping Elio on his toes. Elio discovered he could deliver it back with Oliver because with Oliver he wasn’t nervous all the time when he was talking. “Eh, it’s okay.” 

Oliver laughed and tackled Elio on the couch. This was not a couch made for two people of their size, but this awkward wrestling they were doing was the perfect summary of them in general. Oliver kissed Elio silly, Elio was laughing through it. The happiest he had ever been. Elio decided that he never wanted to forget this. No matter what, no matter what else happened between them, for the rest of Elio’s life, he was going to remember this moment. He was determined. “How about now?” 

“Even better.” With that, the phone rang. Oliver shook his head. Elio cocked his head at him and pointed at the phone. 

Oliver rolled his eyes and walked over. “Hello?” Without any breaks, “calm down, calm down. I’m sorry I told you to calm down. He’s fine, here,” Oliver frantically gestured to Elio to come to get the phone. “See? Here he is.” 

Elio had a good idea who it was, so he answered with this in mind. “Hello, Marzia. I’m sorry I didn’t call when I ‘entered the lion’s den’.” He used air quotes because that is what Marzia had said when he left. He wanted to show Oliver that he thought this was silly, but in reality, it very much so felt like that was what he had done. “I’m alive, well alive and in a food coma. Okay, M, I love you too, I gotta go.” Elio hung up, smiling at Oliver. 

Oliver crossed his arms. “Should I be worried?” 

Elio’s jaw dropped. “You have some nerve. With-“

Elio couldn’t finish his outrage, because Oliver was tickling him in the ribs. “I was kidding, you goose. I know it’s different. I suppose I can share you with Marzia. She does seem to be very in love with her girlfriend, anyway.” 

“God, her and Katie are the worst, so in love.” Elio made a gagging noise, but he didn’t actually mean it, because he knew it could be said about Oliver and him as well, which was not a bad thing, in his book.


	14. 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> there is now a confirmed number of chapters :)

Even comparing himself and Oliver to Marzia and Katie in his head was crazy. He allowed himself to daydream about going on a double date with them. He also needed to meet Katie, eventually, because it felt like a borderline criminal act that he didn’t know her yet. 

Oliver saw that Elio was lost in thought. “Earth to Elio? It freaks me out when you disappear on me like this. When you get lost in your own little world. Let me in, please.” 

Elio snapped out of it. It wasn’t lost on him that Oliver was noticing things about him that were falling into patterns. “Sorry, I was just getting excited about the future. I’m trying not to because I don’t want you to feel pressured about that, but it’s in my head.” 

Oliver looked at him with his eyebrows raised. Elio didn’t know what this was coming from. He was also in the middle of a huge bite of noodles. This was an important talk, but there were other priorities to keep in mind. Like how goddamn hungry he was, and how criminally good the take-out was. “You know that we’re dating, right? Or at least I am pretty sure we are, which means that you’re allowed to think about our future if you want.” 

Elio smiled around another bite of noodles. What? They were good. Oliver made a face that suggested that this was not his best look, but it was a look of love, nonetheless. Which made sense, because, as far as Elio knew, Oliver was in love with him. “Mmhmm.” Elio swallowed his food, and then got out a normal word, “what? This food is delicious and it’s been a hard day for both of us. I’m surprised you haven’t housed these egg rolls yet. Unless you ordered this for one on purpose?” 

Oliver seemed to get the hint and started eating. Elio decided to confirm what Oliver had asked him about. “I sure hope that we’re dating, by the way. I don’t take sharing Chinese food lightly.” Then, it hit Elio. “Oh, shit, is this a date? I think I normally am much more well-mannered on dates than this, but I don’t really know if that’s true.”

Oliver was the one that was going to town on the egg rolls this time, and Elio got his turn to laugh. “I guess this is a date, but also it doesn’t feel like that.” Ouch. “It feels too normal to be a first date. I guess we didn’t really do this in order, did we?” Good, save. 

Elio got closer to Oliver on the couch and slipped his hand into Oliver’s. He tried to ignore how well their hands seemed to fit together, but he was not very successful in that endeavor. This was everything he wanted. They ate amicably for a while; the silence was comfortable and not anything either of them didn’t like. 

Then, they moved to Oliver’s bedroom. It just seemed to make sense. Oliver looked at Elio once they got there, and were sitting on Oliver’s bed. “Do you guys celebrate Thanksgiving? I know that you’re not fully American, but I didn’t know.” Elio had to think about this. They have before, but it was never a big thing. His family was so many different things that it was hard to fully get behind one holiday like that. 

“Kind of. Mafalda would sometimes make us a big meal around Thanksgiving, but we’re not going to the villa until winter break, so I’m not sure what we’re doing.” Oliver nodded. He looked sad. Elio realized why. His parents had just cut him off. “Are you going home for Thanksgiving?” Elio braced for the heartbreak of impact. 

“It turns out that when my parents told me I was cut off, they weren’t joking. It was a full commitment to me no longer being in their family.” Oof. “And, as they so eloquently told me over the phone and through Jane, ‘Thanksgiving is for family and loved ones only’.” Oliver used air quotes, but there was no humor there. Even though Elio didn’t take Thanksgiving very seriously, seeing the sadness in Oliver’s eyes made him want to take Thanksgiving more seriously than anyone ever has in his entire life. 

“You should come to our house! We’ll do something fun!” Elio tried to sound fun and light, but in reality, the wheels in his head were turning. He was going to ask his father if they could gather people that liked and knew Oliver and bring them to the house for Thanksgiving. He would do anything for Oliver, and this seemed like a good step in the right direction. 

Oliver looked down at Elio from where he was laying on the bed. “Don’t do that.” Elio shrugged he wasn’t going to respond until Oliver explained himself. “Don’t do things for me to make me happy every time there is something a little bit wrong. You don’t have to do that for me.” 

Elio looked at him and laughed. Then he jumped into Oliver’s arms. “I happen to want to do things for you, my boyfriend.” Elio could have cried saying that out loud, but he had more to say. “Besides, maybe I secretly love Thanksgiving and you are giving me a great excuse to celebrate how I truly have always wanted to.”

Oliver didn’t push him off, but he crossed his arms in front of his chest. He was having a hard time. He furrowed his brow, looking like he didn’t know how to communicate what he was thinking. He might not have even known what he was thinking. “That can’t be true.” 

Elio, refusing to move, looked at Oliver. “Please let me do this for you.” Elio paused for dramatic effect. “Because, you know, or at least I hope you do, I am kind of in love with you.” Elio then tried his best to burrow himself into Oliver’s chest. He didn’t love that there was a shirt in the way between his face and Oliver’s broad chest, but that would have to do for now. 

Oliver laughed. God, Elio loved the way that felt when Oliver’s chest moved when he laughed. He loved that he knew what this felt like. “Oh, you kind of love me, do you?” 

Elio rolled all the way back so that he was leaning his head against Oliver’s ankles. Rolling his eyes was not enough. He had to roll his entire body. He came back, and while he was talking, he shimmied Oliver’s shirt off. “Of course, I love you.” 

Oliver complied and took his shirt off. Victory. “It’s nice to hear. I’m not used to hearing it that often. June didn’t love to- well, you know.” Elio wondered if Oliver could hear his heart shatter to pieces in his chest. He couldn’t imagine anyone in the entire world being with Oliver and not telling him all the time how special he was and how much he was loved. “Promise me something?” Elio nodded, a little scared for the question, but with how far they have come from his philosophy 101 midterm, there was not a lot to be afraid of. “Don’t do anything crazy for Thanksgiving, okay? The fact that you are inviting me over is already enough.” 

Elio decided to distract Oliver by kissing him. “Yeah, yeah, okay, nothing extravagant. Got it.” Meanwhile, he had other things on his mind. Like worrying about why Oliver was still wearing pants or if he was going to sleep over again. He should have drunk wine so he couldn’t drive himself home, but a part of him wanted to make sure that he was wanted. 

Oliver and Elio were both naked. It was how Elio always wanted to be with Oliver. He wanted to be in one bed that he was starting to consider his bed as well. Before they went any further, Oliver grabbed Elio by the chin. “Stay over?” Oliver seemed to doubt himself for a moment. “Please?” 

“Of course.” Elio tried to hide that he wanted that more than anything in that moment. He was full of joy. Then, he had more important things at hand. Like the fact that his very handsome, very naked boyfriend was in front of him and he wasn’t doing anything about that. So, he started kissing Oliver again. 

“Greedy, are we?” Elio was not used to this. This playful side of Oliver had never come out before now. Oliver wasn’t just treading water with Elio anymore, and that was all he ever wanted. 

Elio didn’t respond, he probably couldn’t have if he wanted to. Elio started working down Oliver’s body and that shut him up, too. After what wasn’t enough time at all, Oliver tapped him on the shoulder. Elio slithered his way back up, wondering what he had done wrong. 

“If you want me to fuck you, you’re going to have to stop doing that.” Elio nodded. He felt like he swallowed his tongue. For the first time, it was Oliver that wanted Elio out loud. It was Oliver calling the shots. 

Oliver worked his magic, and Elio stayed on top of him. Oliver moved to change their positions, but Elio didn’t budge. “Please.” Oliver nodded. Elio was on top of Oliver, and for a brief second, he thought about how much time they could spend together in Italy, and nearly fell off the bed. Luckily, he caught himself, or rather, Oliver did. Oliver always caught him. 

Later, they were lying in bed together, and it felt right. “Oliver?” Oliver grunted. “Are you sure you’re okay? I know that things weren’t good with her, but I don’t want to be in the way of you dealing with that.” What Elio didn’t say was ‘I don’t want to be just a rebound for you, until you get over her, until you find someone better, long-term.’ 

Oliver scooted closer to Elio until they were spooning like it was an extreme sport. “I don’t know, Elio.” Elio held his breath. “We were together for a long time. I knew that if anything changed, that my parents wouldn’t approve, that they would get in my head, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be over it.” Elio silently said a prayer that he wasn’t facing Oliver because he felt himself start to cry. Oliver was always going to be sad, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He could throw the best Thanksgiving dinner in the world, but it still wouldn’t be enough because Oliver’s parents wouldn’t be there. 

Elio squeezed his eyes shut, willing the tears to go back, to not come out of his eyes. This kind of worked. Oliver wasn’t done, and Elio was nervous for what he was going to say next. “It’s just June knew exactly what to say. She knows me so well, and when she found out who I was with, she used everything she could against me.” 

Elio didn’t want to pry, but he had to know what June said about him, about his family. He turned around so that they were forehead to forehead. “Oliver? What did she say to you?” Oliver shook his head, shaking Elio’s too because they were connected. “If you tell me, I can tell you if they’re true or not. I won’t lie, I promise. It might help, talking to me about it, you know.” Oliver didn’t seem to want to respond if his tight-lipped shake of the head was anything to go off. With one more kiss and a “please, it will help if you talk about it, I promise,” he started to talk, avoiding Elio’s eyes. 

“She told me you weren’t real. That you didn’t actually like me, you were just using me. According to her, and most likely my father, I am an easy target. Even though I have been paying for myself and looking out for myself this whole time, I’m supposed to believe that you are going after the money I don’t have.” Elio couldn’t respond. He hated seeing how much June had gotten into his head. None of this was even remotely true, but it looked like Oliver was getting closer and closer to believing it. Elio knew he had to put the kibosh on it right away. 

Elio gripped Oliver’s chin. He thought for a moment how even Oliver’s chin was strong, confident and so firmly Oliver. “Oliver.” Oliver didn’t look into his eyes. “Oliver.” He did, with what looked like fear in his eyes. “That is the farthest thing from true I have ever heard. If anything, I should say you were using me!” Elio elbowed Oliver in the ribs to show him that this was a joke. “Seriously. I am in love with you. I wish you knew how much it scared me. How much it scared me that this doesn’t scare me at all. Look at me!” Elio gestured to himself with a laugh. “I look like this, and am an asshole some- okay most of the time, and you look like that.” After a pause, Oliver clearly didn’t understand what Elio was trying to say. “You are borderline a Greek god and you put up with me. That is what is harder to believe. Listen to me, Oliver and think about it. She would have said anything to get you back. Wouldn’t she have a lot to gain from being in your very wealthy family’s life?” 

“Maybe you’re right.” Oliver seemed like he was starting to feel better. 

Elio decided to air on the side of dramatic, because, it wouldn’t be him if he didn’t. “Maybe? Maybe?” Elio looked around the room like he was working a crowd at an open mic. “This guy thinks that I, the smartest person in my philosophy 101 class is just may be right about my favorite subject?” Then, an aside to Oliver, “that’s you, big guy.” 

“You know what? I should probably go call June and tell her to come back.” Elio’s face fell right away. He didn’t know that this would cross a line as much as it would. Without trying to think too much about what his plan was, he started collecting his things, without looking back at Oliver. He made his choice. “Hey, hey, hey, Elio. It was a joke.” Oliver’s huge arms came around Elio’s now compressed body. Oliver was whispering in his ear. “I’m sorry, I thought you would know I was kidding.” Oliver was pressing kisses all over Elio’s temple and back. “You saved me, you know. I was drowning, and you saved me. Please stay. Please, get back in bed.” 

Elio nodded, exhausted by how much had just happened. He slid back into bed, into Oliver’s waiting arms. This is where he wanted to spend the rest of his life. That’s the thought that he went to sleep thinking. 

Elio woke up to Oliver humming in the kitchen. He didn’t panic when the bed was cold next to him, because it wasn’t too cold, it seemed like Oliver had just woken up. He put on Oliver’s sweatshirt and swam in it. When he padded into the kitchen, Oliver heard him this time. They were getting used to having each other around all the time, and Elio was trying not to read into that too much. “Marzia called. You should probably go home because she seriously implied coming over to demand answers from you, and I don’t think my apartment can handle that much energy.” Elio nodded, the sleeve pulled over his hand, holding his chin up. “I’ll see you soon though, right? Tomorrow. Keep the sweatshirt.”

Elio kissed Oliver one more time. One or two of them was thanking him for keeping the sweatshirt. He loved how big and comfortable it was. And that it was a sign, even if only he knew, that he had something of Oliver's and they were together. Then three more times, and with a laugh, he was out the door. He was driving home and everything looked beautiful. It was like every tree was standing up straighter, every stranger was there to greet him. When he walked into his house, Marzia and his parents were sitting at the dining room table with someone he didn’t recognize. A woman. Elio felt something in the pit of his stomach. He had started to learn not to trust unexpected visitors. 

It was Elio’s father that spoke up first. “Ellie! Welcome home! Espresso?” Elio nodded, unsure of what else to do. He looked around and wondered if anyone was going to explain what was going on because he was still in the dark. 

Marzia coughed. “Um, Elio?” Elio furrowed his brow. She was acting weird, very serious. “I want you to meet Katie.” Elio’s jaw dropped. She was here. Marzia looked nervous. 

Elio decided to pretend to be more confident than he actually was, and walked over to shake her hand. “Katie! I have heard so much about you! Truly, Marzia talks about you all the time.” Elio stopped because he was getting a very pointed look from Marzia to stop talking. His father came in with the save in more than one way, with the espresso, and joining in the conversation. 

“Katie came to visit and is going to be with us for Thanksgiving. Isn’t that great, Elio?” Elio’s father sounded absolutely ecstatic. 

“Yeah, that’s great. Dad? Can Oliver come over for Thanksgiving? His family didn’t exactly invite him home this year.” Elio’s father looked like he could have started crying on the spot. “I think we should do something big, maybe invite other professors and TA’s that can’t go home for the holidays or don’t have family?” Elio’s father hugged Elio. 

“Ellie-bellie that is the best idea I’ve heard in a while! We need to get started planning!” With that, he ran out of the room. 

Elio yelled after him. “Dad? We can’t tell him we’re doing this just for him. I may have suggested that I wasn’t going to do anything extravagant for him, so we have to act like this is what we always do?” Elio’s dad was back in the door frame. He was rubbing his hands together. 

“Perfect. Is a twenty-pound turkey enough do you think?” No response. “You’re right. Twenty-five is the way to go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone that reads and comments on this. i'm sorry that it took me such a long time to update and i appreciate the patience and the fact that people are still reading this despite it taking me so long in between chapters. 
> 
> your comments mean the world to me and when people talk about this to me my heart soars.   
> my tumblr is @/lilchalamet :)


	15. 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanksgiving....a week late...my b

During a brief moment when Marzia and Katie weren’t disgustingly in love and touring the campus and generally spending time together, Marzia pulled Elio into his room. “You’re going to need to tell me everything that has been going on.” Marzia was smiling. This was the happiest he had seen her in a while, and he was happy about that. He tried to ignore the tinge of jealousy and sadness that came with that. He didn’t quite understand it, so he tried his best not to think about it too hard. 

“So, Oliver is coming to Thanksgiving because his family cut him off. Which you know. But it was also because he finally ended things with June. She tried to tell him that I was just using him for his money and position at the university because that was what his father had told her to tell him. Apparently, he is used to people using him and his father figured that would be the best way to get to him.” Elio felt strange and robotic rehashing what had happened between them, but he did want Marzia to know. 

“Oh, Elio.” Marzia took his hand. “Please tell me you don’t blame yourself for this.” 

Elio looked up and shrugged. He didn’t want to lie per se, but he didn’t know what was true. He couldn’t tell if he blamed himself or felt incredibly sad for Oliver. Either way, it was a gross feeling and he was going to try to remedy it by throwing a beautiful Thanksgiving. Well, his father was going to be doing most of the throwing, but he did help organize it. “I don’t know, M it just seems like his life would be a lot easier without me in it. I kind of ruined everything.” 

Marzia hit him with a pillow. Elio expected a lot of reactions, but not this. “Elio, please, you did not ruin everything. You are so dramatic sometimes, I swear. If he really likes you, or hell if he loves you, he wouldn’t blame you for any of this. If anything, it seems like you woke him up from a sleep he was in. Like he was trying to coast through the life he was prescribed.” 

“Jesus M, since when did you get so smart?” 

“I have always been smart, you just don’t listen to me.” Marzia crossed her arms, but it was nice to spend time with her again. He understood that spending time with Katie was important while she was there, but he was missing her quite a bit. 

“Does Katie hate me?” 

“Ugh, no E. She doesn’t hate you. She thinks that you are ridiculous for throwing a Thanksgiving for one person and pretending not to, but she also thinks that it’s very endearing, which is annoying.” Marzia took on a different voice. “Oh, Elio is so nice and in love with Oliver, don’t you think, Marzia? Isn’t that so special? It’s like fate.” Then, she dramatically collapsed on the bed. 

“I could say the same thing about you, you know.” Elio was happy. He was hanging out with Marzia, and soon he would be on break and have time with Oliver. Even though the break wasn’t really break. It never was. That was something to be annoyed with for another time. 

It was the day before Thanksgiving when Elio finally had the nerve to tell Oliver about what the dinner was going to be like. Well, kind of at least. He went to Oliver’s office, where he was working for some reason, even though it was the day before break. The door was open, and Elio watched Oliver work for a moment. He was hunched over at his desk, and Elio could study his profile. It was a really good one. Oliver was focusing on something, probably his manuscript. After he felt he watched for long enough to be creepy, he knocked, trying not to scare Oliver and almost succeeding. 

Oliver jumped and looked up. “Good, it’s you. Sorry, I’ve been crazy busy, and so many people have told me they need to talk to me during office hours I haven’t been able to catch a break yet. Come in! What’s up?” 

Elio walked in and weirdly felt like he was asking Oliver out on a first date. Except it was nothing like that. It was a huge dinner that his father was more than thrilled to be organizing and it was going to be amazing. If that was what Oliver wanted. “Just wanted to make sure you were free tomorrow. You know, for turkey day.” Elio scratched the back of his head. He had heard that from someone else and he didn’t love it, but it seemed like something that Oliver would like. 

Oliver chuckled. “No, Elio, I’m not busy on ‘turkey day’. Are you inviting me over?” 

“Course, I think some other faculty members that are far away from home might be coming also.” He didn’t think, he knew. He knew that it was 7 other faculty members. With his family, Oliver, Marzia, and Katie that would be 13 people at this ‘casual Thanksgiving dinner.’ 

“Oh?” Oliver seemed to relax a little at this. 

“Oh, and Marzia’s girlfriend will be there too.” Elio took a survey of the room and understood that Oliver needed some time to himself. “You can come over tonight if you want to sleep over before. But, you don’t have to. I know you’re busy.” Elio hated that he did this sometimes. He would backtrack before he was even shut down. He rejected himself before anyone else could. 

“That would be amazing, Elio. Let me just finish stuff up around here and finish my office hours and I will head over. Also, I am pretty scared of the answer, but are you doing something extravagant because of me tomorrow?” 

Elio shrugged, walked over to Oliver, gave him a kiss and walked out. “I guess you’ll just have to find out.” 

“Elio-“

“Bye!” Followed by a much quieter “love you!” 

Elio walked out, happy with himself that he did that well. As he was walking, he felt someone coming up behind him. He wasn’t generally a nervous person, but he was willing to make exceptions. Trying to be casual about it, he started to turn over his shoulder, to see Oliver running like the wind to catch up to him with his bag barely closed. Elio stopped and waited until Oliver caught up to him. “Oh?”

“I decided that if these people need help they will have to wait until after the break. I have someone to be with right now.” Elio was smiling. 

“And who would that be?” 

“You are such a brat sometimes.” Oliver looked around the nearly empty campus. He got closer. “I would kiss you right now if I could.” 

Elio stood on his tiptoes and looked like he was going to until he tucked a piece of Oliver’s hair behind his ear. Then, he nodded, and they walked side by side to Elio’s house. Not a very far walk, but it felt tense. Mostly because Elio was worried about what kind of scene his father would be causing during his cooking campaign. They walked in and saw quite the sight. His father was basting the turkey or doing something equally unholy to it, his mother was over the stovetop, and Marzia and her girlfriend were laughing over pie dough. Elio had never felt so warm in his entire life. He felt like he might cry. He felt Oliver’s hand on his arm. Elio realized he might look upset as opposed to how he was actually feeling which was incredibly happy. 

“Elio?” At this, everyone looked up from what they were doing. Elio’s father spoke first. 

“Elio! Oliver! Welcome home! We have started cooking for tomorrow and everything is coming along wonderfully.” 

Marzia was smiling, but it wasn’t a normal smile. It was her annoying knowing smile that she did whenever she knew information from just reading Eli’s expression. He never had to tell her anything, but she always knew everything. “Hi Elio, Oliver. This is my girlfriend, Oliver.”

Oliver reached over to shake her hand. “Hello, I have heard a lot about you, it’s nice to meet you.” 

Katie responded with a light chuckle. “I have as well.” She looked between Oliver and Elio. God damn it, Marzia. She probably knew everything about their relationship, even stuff that Oliver didn’t know. That was to be expected though, they were always on the phone for hours. Marzia picked up a job so that she could pay Elio’s father for the long distance phone calls, even though he insisted that he didn’t want any money for them. 

“Is there anything I can do to help? It is so nice of you all to invite me over, I want to be as of service as I can.” Oliver had always been charming, but he was really putting it on. It didn’t seem fake either. Elio had a feeling that he would be alone on this holiday if he hadn’t invited him over, which made him sad. 

“Oh no, darling. You just relax. Perhaps tomorrow! We’re almost done for the night, anyway.” Everything Elio’s mother said was dipped in just the right amount of sweetness and sternness. She was someone that wasn’t to be messed with but could also nurture anyone and anything back to life. 

Elio pulled Oliver’s arm to go to his room before anyone could stop them. He wanted to be able to spend one on one time with Oliver before his family and the faculty got to him. They got to the room, and Elio flopped himself down on the bed. For being a short week, it sure felt like a long one. He was happy that all his people were in the same place. 

“I’m happy you’re here.” Elio made grabby hands. Oliver was there, to be sure, but he wasn’t close enough. Oliver laughed and got on the bed with Elio. “Oliver? Can I ask you something?” Oliver hummed in response. “What would you have done if I didn’t invite you over for Thanksgiving?” 

“I would have gotten close and personal with a bottle of whiskey, probably.” 

Elio hated hearing this. It felt like it ripped his soul in half. To combat this, he rolled on top of Oliver and started kissing him. Oliver let it happen for a little while, and then put Elio at arm’s length. Elio made an annoyed noise. 

“Are you my knight in shining armor?” Oliver brought Elio back down so he was laying on his chest, chin up looking at Oliver. 

“I can be. It just makes me sad, you know. Because it’s partially my fault. That you’re not with them this week.” Elio twisted his mouth into a frown. He tried not to think about this too much because this was Oliver’s burden to bear and he didn’t want to make it about himself. But he wanted to know. He wanted to make sure. 

“Elio, I would have been kicked out no matter what. If anything, I have you to thank. Without your support and love, I don’t know how much longer I would have stayed with June trapped in that fake relationship that wasn’t going anywhere.” Oliver was smiling down at Elio. It was hitting his eyes, thankfully. This seemed real. 

“You know I love you, right?” Elio blinked up at Oliver. He wanted to say so much more, but it wasn’t the place. He was going to say it with the Thanksgiving that his family was throwing the next day. He was going to say it by being Oliver’s knight in shining armor, even if he didn’t ask for it. He worried that Oliver wasn’t the kind of person that people took care of very often because he seemed so strong, but Elio was going to be the one to do it. 

“I know. I love you too. In case that wasn’t clear.” Oliver seemed nervous. Elio didn’t like this. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Elio was sitting up now. This was no time to be casual. 

“It’s just you have given me so much with Thanksgiving and Italy and I have nothing to give you in return. I can’t even inflate your grade because you’re doing the best in the class.” 

“You have given me so much more than you will ever know. I am away from home, too. And I know my family is here, but with you, I feel like I am finally at home. Fuck that was so cheesy, but it’s true. You make me feel safe. That’s more than I could ever thank you for.” Elio started kissing Oliver. Begging him to play along. This was safe, this was happy, and he did. Oliver did, luckily, and soon, they were really kissing. This was what Elio wanted. Elio started sinking down, and Oliver sighed. Elio wanted to give everything he had to Oliver, and this was one of those things. Oliver threaded his fingers through Elio’s hair in a show of appreciation, and Elio could feel him breathing heavily. Elio could live in this moment for the rest of his life if he wanted to. 

 

Later, they were still lying in bed and relaxing, not talking, but it was a happy silence. Elio turned to look at Oliver’s face and smiled. 

“What?” 

“Just happy. Excited for tomorrow.” 

They didn’t do much for the rest of the night, they laid around and watched a movie with everyone at the house. It was really the best day Elio and Oliver had had in a while, and Elio was loving every minute of it. 

Elio was shaken awake early the next morning by Oliver who looked like an excited kid. “What?” 

“The parade is on! We have to go watch it!” Oliver dragged Elio out of bed and to the television, where in fact, the Macy’s Day Parade was going on and it seemed to be in full swing. There were all kinds of characters floating down the street, and everyone looked colder than they expected to be. Elio and Oliver watched the parade for a while and it became clear that it just played over and over again for the whole day.

They helped make dinner. That was kind of a misnomer, though, because they were going to be eating this meal at 2 pm. Not quite dinner time. When all the professors got there and they were all sitting down at the table that had to be extended and then added to again, it felt like a home for the first time. Elio looked around. Sure, most of them weren’t related or didn’t even know each other before this day that well, but it was the happiest gathering of people he had ever been a part of. His father had put up fliers in the faculty coffee room telling people to see him if they didn’t have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. It wasn’t all sad stories. Some people were also from far away and were visiting professors that didn’t normally celebrate Thanksgiving. In reality, this was all for Oliver. Even if it wasn’t for everyone there, the reason it was happening at all was for Oliver. Elio credited Oliver with being the reason for everyone to be there, celebrating, eating too much at a weird hour. 

By the time people had finished their thirds, everyone was lounging and drinking wine, talking amongst themselves. People were mingling more than Elio had ever seen. Marzia and Katie were excitedly talking with a professor from France, with huge smiles on their faces. Elio could speak French, but it was probably nice to have a native speaker there. Someone who really understood them. Oliver was making the rounds and all the professors seemed to not avoid smiling and engaging in very exciting conversation with him. Elio bit his lip watching Oliver. He wasn’t jealous, he was proud of Oliver. Of what he had accomplished during his time as a TA and grad student at the school. When he thought about it, he had never heard anyone say a bad thing about Oliver. Well, except for him, but that was the old him. Oliver looked over at Elio, sitting in a chair, leaning back, drinking wine. He turned back to the person he was talking to and then walked over. 

“Aren’t you a little young to be drinking that?” 

“What’s Thanksgiving without wine?” Then he put on a voice. “I simply can’t deal with my family sober.” It was a joking voice, but Elio suddenly worried that this would hit too close to home. He blanched, but Oliver laughed. 

“I can’t believe you did all this. I don’t want to be selfish and assume it was for me, but it means the world to me, Elio. I love you so much and I can’t wait for Italy. I am so glad you were the asshole in my first class I TA’d.” 

“And I am happy that I had an asshole of a TA to make fun of.” Oliver elbowed Elio in the ribs. This didn’t get too far, because Elio’s father walked out of the kitchen carrying more pies than Elio would think physically possible. 

“Dessert time!!!” Everyone swarmed the table again. They had all just eaten like there was no tomorrow, but they would make room for pie.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on a flight on my phone because I was feeling inspired. This will be multi chaptered (duh). thanks for reading/commenting/leaving kudos
> 
> my tumblr is @/lilchalamet if you have concerns


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